She Once Had A Name
by ChikaiItachi
Summary: This 10chpt. story will follow our beloved Yayoi from her childhood, through the series, and a little bit afterward. Yayoi was an underdeveloped character so I envisioned her past and the problems that make her a "Latent Criminal." Shipping warning: Yayoi/Rina AND Yayoi/Shion.
1. Childhood

1: Childhood

The world changed in innumerable ways as a result of the wars that began in 2030 and lasted at least two decades. Humanity fought over resources as well as issues of religion, population control, class systems, terrorism, anarchy, and the results of new technology. "First World Countries" continued to develop more and more amazing technology even during such times. However, the wars and newly evolved pathogens reduced the world population by about a fifth.

Other problems persisted after the wars as well. Bioweapons and even nuclear bombs had reduced the world's usable dry land by 30%. The climates had changed, as well as all the agricultural systems of the world. While robotics and medical science had drastically improved, the vast majority of the remaining population saw extreme worldwide increases in suicide rates. People called 2063 "The Reaper Year" because a reliable and large-scale study estimated that two and a half million people from across the world died from suicide that year alone.

Humans may have thought themselves unlucky, but their continued domination of the planet was assured. Meanwhile, as the Sixth Mass Extinction continued, the majority of wild animals died out. This included 50% of all the fish species eaten by humans. Most island countries and other places dependent on fish tumbled into poverty and starvation. Japan, of course, became the most notable exception to this trend.

The last major wars ended by the 2050s, and after several attempted foreign takeovers, Japan fought for its own sovereignty and emerged victorious from their last international conflict in 2067. The country cut off most trade with the world and changed to become incredibly self-sustaining. Japan's population and economy stayed relatively stable after the 60s, and the Japanese handled the fish crisis by raising billions of genetically modified fish. Even with all these blessings, however, fear began to rise among the people that their country would fall into chaos without a greater system of control. Experiments with Neurological Cymatic Scans began in the early 2060s, but it was not until the 2080s that people came to trust them completely.

Yayoi Kunizuka was born in 2088, just a couple years after the Sybil System's implementation throughout Japan. It took several years, but relatively speaking, the System had been quick to rise to power. On the other hand, violent crime emerged as a serious danger in large cities from the late 80s to the mid-90s. Mr. Kunizuka Morihiro lived in Tokyo when Yayoi was born, and the family settled there for many years. This naturally meant that Yayoi's father and mother were somewhat overprotective and gave their young daughter a highly sheltered life. Furthermore, the Kunizukas became ardent supporters of the Sybil System, and enrolled Yayoi in Sybil-funded private schools from age six and onward.

**Break***

"Miss Kunizuka," said a teacher to Yayoi and her parents at the end of her second schoolyear, "you're a very good student. You don't skip classes, you are always polite, and you do your homework. Even though you struggle with things like history or reading, you always pull through when you try your best."

Sitting between her parents on the small, scratchy couch across from the teacher's office chair, Yayoi simply nodded in response. Distractedly, she played with her hair, already reaching just past her shoulders. Yayoi would turn eight at the end of the summer, so she had no difficulty speaking, but rather had a naturally quiet disposition. Even so, Mr. Kunizuka nudged his daughter, whispering that she needed to thank the teacher for such praise.

"There's no need," smiled the teacher, a Miss Erizawa with thick, braided hair. "I know Yayoi likes to be quiet. That said, however, I want to let you, her parents, know that Yayoi was involved in one rather ugly incident earlier this year. We didn't encourage you to take Yayoi in for a Psycho-Pass check because according to the scanner on our school grounds, her number and hue remain at normal levels."

"But what happened, Erizawa-san?" asked Yayoi's half-German father in a worrisome tone.

"If her mentality is normal," said Mrs. Kunizuka flatly, "we don't really need to know."

Yayoi saw her teacher looking conflicted, so she volunteered in her small voice, "Daddy, I'll tell you what happened. It was between classes so I went outside to see if there was flowers yet. But it was still cold, no flowers, so I sang a song about flowers. Sometimes, I feel lonely, so I went to the garden and sang a lot. But I was never loud. I was never rude. Other girls from class said I was bothering the school. Dazai-san said I must be turning bad. That's not true! So I hit her with a stick."

Mrs. Kunizuka laughed and the blue-carpeted room was tense until Morihiro said sternly,

"Yayoi, that was a horrible thing to do!" He turned to Erizawa with a sigh. "Please accept our apologies for letting something like that happen. I trust that this Dazai-san was not badly hurt? Good. Still, Erizawa-san, this may be my fault in part. You see, I'm an independent singer and songwriter—that's where our money comes from, mostly—and I often play on the guitar for Yayoi. She was probably trying to copy me by singing, so if it hadn't been for me—"

"It's quite alright, Mr. Kunizuka," Erizawa assured him, pacing to the window to let the faint sunlight in through her office window. "This is little Yayoi's first 'offense', you might say. She's young and that means she's still just a bit impulsive. And more importantly, her Psycho-Pass remained normal. I simply wanted to let you know of the incident for future reference. Miss Kunizuka performed excellently this year, overall."

As the Kunizuka family left the private school, Yayoi hid her annoyance under her usual quiet mask. Even though the teacher had praised her so much, Morihiro remained upset with his daughter. He told her he would not let her borrow his guitar for a month for punishment. Yayoi had other pass-times, but music had always been her favorite. Now she would not be able to learn any more for a month. Silently, she wished something exciting would happen to distract her.

Later, she regretted that childish wish.

***Break***

Major upheaval began in Yayoi's life that same summer. The Sybil System's control reached farther than ever into freedom of thought and expression. Certain artists, musicians, and religions were given Sybil's authorization, while many more were denied "approval" and came to be considered dangerous to society. Yayoi's father Morihiro was obligated to let Sybil's agents run an investigation of his music and content. Furthermore, Mrs. Maria Kunizuka started to drink a lot more, and conversation with her became nearly impossible because of her aggression.

One day, Yayoi came home from the robotics museum (where she had gone without permission) and noticed that her father's guitar was missing.

Mr. Kunizuka saw the little girl searching and heaved a sad sigh. He called Yayoi and his wife Maria into the main sitting area of their spacious two-bedroom apartment. Yayoi followed without question, but it took some time to convince Maria to stop drinking and listen.

"My guitar has been confiscated for now," Morihiro said sadly, while Yayoi listened in outrage. "The investigators say that everything will be done in two weeks. We just have to hope my music is approved. This might be hard to understand, Yayoi, but most of our money comes from the Net sales of my music, and the trips I sometimes take to perform. If my music isn't approved, daddy will have to work a lot more than he does now. Mommy will need to work, too. We may have to move to a cheaper place."

"But why?" asked Yayoi in confusion.

"Ha!" Mrs. Kunizuka said. "That's what I'd like to know."

Morihiro visibly stopped himself from snapping at his wife, and then he shook his head and spoke. "Maria, my dear, you know that this is something we agreed on when she was born!" He cleared his throat and faced Yayoi. "You see, my girl, even though we live in a simple apartment, I really do make quite a lot of money. Most of that money is what pays for you to go to private academies endorsed by the Sybil System."

A cold wave seemed to suddenly wash over Yayoi. "You mean we could stay in this apartment if my school didn't cost so much money?"

"That's right, honey," Mrs. Kunizuka said with mock-sweetness in her voice. "I wouldn't have to start working, either, if not for the Academy's ridiculous tuition. Listen, you are—"

"Both of you!" snapped Mr. Kunizuka. "You're assuming my music isn't going to be approved. Can't you all have a little more faith in me than this? I'm almost positive I'll get approval, and we won't have to move, and you, Maria, won't have to work. Alright, now you're both free to go. Dear, try not to drink too much. And please don't take this out on your own daughter."

Yayoi felt terribly guilty. She didn't even care about school terribly much. She had few friends, joined no clubs, and took part in no class projects (this solitary trend would continue until she reached her teens). If school would force her mother to work and make her unhappy, then Yayoi thought she should just not go to school. The only things she would miss were her science class and the general IT class she would be starting in September. Yayoi loved to learn about computers, electricity, chemicals, and early introductions to principles of physics, which would all help her one day become an operator of drones. However, Yayoi was willing to give up all that up for her father and mother and the peace of the family.

***Break***

Late one night, Yayoi decided to tell her father she would quit those stupid expensive academies, but he was already sound asleep in the bigger of the two bedrooms, in which Mr. and Mrs. Kunizuka shared a bed. However, tonight Maria could not be seen among the sheets and blankets. Yayoi figured she had gone to the kitchen, so she crept down the hall and through the living area. The shades over both windows in that room had been lifted. Outside the moon was almost full, but to Yayoi it looked a bit lopsided. The little girl thought she heard a clinking sound—her mother drinking whiskey again?—and she hurried onward.

The kitchen was empty, but Yayoi realized that the sound she heard came from the nearby door leading outside. It was the main entrance and exit. Then the sound she had heard must be keys. Could Mrs. Kunizuka be out late and trying to get back in? Before the little girl could do anything, someone knocked on the door with alarming force and gruffly shouted, "Police!"

Yayoi trembled in fear, but she knew she had been taught to always obey the Police. She took a deep breath and opened the door. Nothing could have adequately prepared her for what she saw on the other side. It changed her life forever.

While one cop stood in front by the door, two more stood just behind him, and between the two of them they carried the unconscious and deranged figure of Maria Kunizuka. Everything suddenly seemed half-muted and blurred by a kind of mist, and Yayoi felt like she was watching the scene from outside her own body. She only vaguely recognized the things happening around her. The front policeman asked for her father, but he was already on his way. He asked in irritation if Maria had been drunk in public again, but the lead officer shook his head, saying it was much more serious. Yayoi didn't really understand, but her mother had done something bad… something about "history of shoplifting" and "the pick-pocketing problem at the malls". The police reported that Mrs. Kunizuka's Crime Coefficient reached 121 and they had temporarily paralyzed her. They saw on her records that she had a family. So before taking Maria to the hospital, where the staff would explain her confinement options, the Police stopped by to see if Morihiro wanted to accompany his wife and help her settle in to the hospital.

"Thanks for being so thoughtful," said Mr. Kunizuka in a strained voice. "But please go ahead and take her away. I don't want my own hue to get any darker by association. I have always been a good citizen and a kind husband, but if my wife really robbed people, I suspect she intended to take the money and leave me, as she so often threatened. My company would be unwelcome to her. Besides, someone must take care of the child."

When the police took her mother away, Yayoi began to cry despite having felt so numb seconds earlier. She broke down into sobs and asked over and over why her mother had been knocked out and taken away. Mr. Kunizuka closed the door and hugged his daughter, himself shedding tears as well.

"I'm sorry you have to go through this, sweetheart," he whispered in a trembling voice. "Your mommy stole a whole lot of money today and tried to run away with it. Before that, she had been stealing jewelry for months and using drugs to disguise her Psycho-Pass. She's a criminal."

"No!" shouted Yayoi. "Why would she try to leave us? She was drunk, that's all!"

With tears still running down his cheeks, Morihiro said, "Yayoi, listen. I expect your mom's Psycho-Pass will drop when she sobers up and has some treatment at the hospital. However, it's very unlikely that her number will return to normal. It will probably stay right above a hundred, and she will have to live in confinement. We won't be able to live with mommy anymore. Calm down, try not to cry so loud; we don't want to wake up the neighbors. I know it's hard, sweetheart. We can still visit her though. We can visit mommy whenever you want."

The moonlight kept streaming through the windows looking out into the city. Yayoi and her father held each other and wept. They were equals at that moment. Neither was stronger than the other, both hopeful souls had been cruelly betrayed, and neither heart felt more wounded than the other. They grieved together.

***Break***

Yayoi's childhood went downhill from there. Her mother was confined to a Latent Criminal Living Center, where she made money as a janitor that went straight to paying off her enormous fines for larceny and the settlement money for the rich couples she had robbed. She would most likely be in confinement her entire life unless somehow her psycho-pass dropped. As Yayoi grew up, however, her mother's psycho-pass slowly rose. Yayoi forgave her mother and visited her regularly, but gradually Mrs. Kunizuka became more verbally abusive and incapable of civil talk.

Morihiro Kunizuka's music received approval and was authorized by Sybil, but he stopped playing except at small gatherings now and then. He fell into depression, and eventually couldn't play music at all; he found a somewhat menial office job and worked there full-time. Even so, he could no longer pay for Yayoi's private school education. So, at age eleven, the young girl began attending public school. She remained a good student, especially with science, but she impulsively stirred up violent arguments from time to time, and her Psycho-Pass had to be regularly examined. Just like before, Yayoi made few friends, and joined no clubs or groups. Most of her free time went to studying robots and drones.

After Yayoi turned twelve, however, she slowly made a few friends. It was a bumpy process. Yayoi never got used to the fact that people would forget her name; they often called her nicknames or messed up her first or last name. Nevertheless, Yayoi started befriending classmates. Things never worked out with them and somehow or other they grew tired or irritated with Yayoi's company. Then she tried the robotics club, but nobody there came anywhere close to Yayoi's level of knowledge, so she broke away from them. Finally, almost on a whim, she tried the music club. Yayoi got along well with the people there, and one of them, Rina, was coming to visit the apartment soon. For the first time in years, Yayoi began to feel hopeful.

She visited the Latent Criminal Facility to tell her mom about this recent development. At first, Maria didn't seem to recognize her own daughter, but Yayoi said, "It's me, mom."

"How vague," the bitter woman snorted. "You don't even say your name."

"Because you know my name, mom."

The woman laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. Your name doesn't matter. Here, we are all numbers. I am Patient 334. Today they gave your locker key 027, which means you are visitor twenty-seven. If you insist on keeping on visiting me and making me pretend to talk nice to you, then how about we call ourselves by our numbers?"

"Mother, stop saying those things," Yayoi said, trying to imitate her father. "I came to tell you good news. I made a friend at school. Her name is Rina, and she's going to visit me. She—"

"If you finally somehow managed to make a friend," Mrs. Kunizuka scoffed, "then what the hell are you doing here? Do you really not understand that I don't want your company?! If it wasn't for you, none of this would have happened."

Yayoi held back tears. "F-fine then. I'll go home."

"Do you know?" Maria said, gesturing widely as if permanently drunk. "Do you know I regret bearing you, brat? I wish you had never been born. I wish I had never named you. I've actually been trying to forget your name. But every time you come back, you force me to remember again, and relive my pain! Ha! And where do you think you're off to NOW, after coming all this way?"

At first, the daughter did not respond. Yayoi had stood up from the stiff chair positioned to look through the glass to her mother's cell. She shouldered her little black satchel and began to walk away. She turned around one more time and glared at her mother with fierce blue eyes.

"I'm not coming to visit you anymore, mom," she stated hatefully. "This may be the last time I see you. Like you, I'm sick of pretending to talk nicely to a bitch. Mother, I hope you remember my name, because nobody will remind you once I'm gone. Goodbye, Mom."

The little girl walked out of the facility with angry tears in her eyes. After that instance, she never visited her mother again. She decided she didn't need her mother. She was mature for her age, after all. In the name of maturity, Yayoi afterward began to dress in gray and black and to tie up her long hair. She wondered if Rina would like the new look or not.

After her mother became estranged and her father fell into deeper depression, Yayoi wondered if her own Psycho-Pass would rise to dangerous levels. With things going well at school, however, Yayoi tried to stay hopeful. On the bright side, she even had a friend now. That friend, Rina Takizaki, would also be an instrument in changing Yayoi's life forever.


	2. Teenage Years

When Yayoi became close friends with Rina, both girls were merely thirteen. Rina proved to be extremely cheerful, sometimes childish, and highly opinionated, though she never tried to force her opinions on others. Rina thought her wildness hilarious in contrast to Yayoi's generally aloof tendencies and her efforts to be "mature." (Incidentally, Yayoi spoke her mind much more often when she was with Rina, and felt more comfortable expressing emotion.) A "wild child", Rina often voiced thoughts that Yayoi feared would get her in trouble; she also led them both into ridiculous escapades, such as the time Rina acquired real grape juice and convinced Yayoi it was western red wine. Yayoi often fell for such pranks at that age, and the humor of it all was part of the reason she came to see Rina as her best friend.

Opposites attract, they say. Yayoi, or Ya-chan as Rina called her then, tended to be pessimistic, attentive to rules, and prone to spells of intense anger when upset. Meanwhile, Rina thought optimistically, laughed often, and possessed a laidback personality which some considered rude for a little girl. However, Rina never cared what others thought of her. In another case of her "wild child syndrome", she started dyeing her originally brown hair when she joined the music club. (It was pure black with vibrantly colored streaks of green and blue when Yayoi met her.) According to Rina, the coloration made her feel more like "a rock star."

Speaking of "rock stars", Rina truly owned incredible musical talent. She could sing better than anyone else in their school district, and even at twelve she played the guitar almost as well as Yayoi's father once could. Yayoi liked to play guitar too, but she was amateur compared with her friend. She also lost the confidence that led her to sing so often as a child, so she rarely sang even in front of Rina. However, the confident Rina had no trouble singing whenever she wanted. She often wrote song lyrics and sang them to Yayoi first before showing them to the rest of the music club. Yayoi never felt annoyed by it, but instead became entranced with whatever song Rina brought to life with her beautiful voice.

For reasons like this, Yayoi and Rina cared deeply for each other. The girls were too young to fully understand that each found the other attractive in both personality and body. They loved to try on clothes together, have sleepovers, hug often, and hold hands. Yayoi knew in the back of her mind that Rina was something more than her best friend, but she said nothing about it until years later, for fear of destroying the unique "friendship" they shared.

One day, Yayoi and Rina went together to a small park a few blocks from the Kunizuka apartment. Both girls loved to see gardens and to try to spot any wild mammals, though all they had ever seen in Tokyo were a couple of rats. Some birds remained, and Rina loved trying to identify them. People like Rina who still enjoyed parks and mountain woods were largely considered eccentric and were called "The Hippies of the 22nd Century." Yayoi preferred spending time on robots instead of wildlife, but she had always maintained a love for flowers, including the few wildflowers that remained. When they had finished walking around the garden, holding hands, the two girls sat on a stone wall and Rina began to hum a lovely tune.

"What song is that?" Yayoi inquired. "Um… can I hear the whole thing?"

"I can sing it, but it'll sound pretty lame without my guitar," Rina laughed.

"I don't think your voice ever sounds lame," Yayoi protested.

"Well, flattery WILL get you far with me. The song's just called 'Birds'. It goes like this:

 _All the birds die off, they didn't get to sing for long enough;_

 _Where did humanity go wrong?_

 _I longed to see them fly, but that dream's from a time long gone by;_

 _Now, I lie and say I won't miss them._

 _I want to ask them, 'Will you sing for me again?'_

 _But so many are already gone._

 _I want to ask them, 'Is there a Heaven there for you?'_

 _Where did humanity go wrong, oh, go so wrong?_

 _The birds of my sweet land were killed by my species' hand!_

 _But I will sing till they return—_

 _Can't I bring back the birds of my sweet land?_

"That's only the first verse and chorus, but it's pretty, isn't it, Ya-chan?"

"It's amazing," answered the other girl— "you delivered it perfectly. Is it one you wrote?"

"Oh hell no," Rina laughed in reply. "It's something my Uncle wrote before his music got ruined by the Sybil System. They didn't authorize his band, you see. Focusing on the fact that humans destroyed nature, they say, will make people depressed and angry. So my Uncle's band was not approved."

"Then maybe you shouldn't be singing his songs anymore," Yayoi warned her friend.

"Oh come on, Ya-chan. The way this country controls music is absurd. My Uncle eventually ended up with a 103 Psycho Pass and had to be confined because the System drove him so mad."

"My mother was locked up, too," Yayoi whispered.

"Well, at least you can go see her then. My clever old Uncle found some way to kill himself in the Living Center cells." Rina continued speaking lightheartedly as if her words were not disturbing. "But you know what they say: an artist's spirit comes back to life for a little while every time someone sings his songs. One day soon I'll have my own band. We'll remember my Uncle in those songs."

"I'm sorry you can't see your Uncle," Yayoi said gloomily. "I can't go and see my mother though, either. She hates me. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't remember my name if I went to see her now. People never get my name right, anyway. It's like I'm so unnoticeable everybody forgets it."

"Oh," said Rina in alarm, "should I not call you Ya-chan, then?"

Yayoi sighed and rested her head on Rina's shoulder. "Call me whatever you like."

***Break***

Nobody's teenage years are particular easy, but Yayoi's teen times could be especially rough. (On the other hand, she was also incredibly fortunate to be able to go to the same high school as her best friend.) One of the main difficulties Yayoi faced was having to frequently attend mandatory therapy. Her Crime Coefficient tended to rise a point or two every year, and her hue frequently became cloudy. The therapy really did help remedy this issue, but that didn't mean it wasn't humiliating. Yayoi's other troubles resulted from her lack of social skills and the occasional spells of fury that would suddenly explode from her like a bomb out of nowhere. Yayoi could not for the life of her figure out why those outbursts happened.

As for being social, she could find little time for it between schoolwork, studying robotics, having guitar lessons with Rina, and taking on most of the household duties while her father's depression made him nonfunctional. When she did try to socialize, Yayoi had a difficult time trusting anyone or talking honestly with them. When things went sour with a friend, Yayoi never took it well. She would accuse the friend of abandoning her and then cease speaking to the friend altogether.

She remained close friends with Rina, however, there were certain things they did not discuss. Although Yayoi found out from her own research, Rina never told her that her Uncle had been against the Sybil System, and that her Aunt felt the same. Yayoi thought maybe she was embarrassed by her family's open extremism. Rina herself often pointed out the flaws and injustices of the Sybil system, but she didn't seem extremist about it. Her Crime Coefficient was higher than Yayoi's but rarely fluctuated, and remained well under a hundred. There were things Yayoi wouldn't talk about either, such as the confusing feelings she felt for her best friend, but Rina never pushed. In turn, Yayoi respected Rina's heartfelt opinions and did not think any of them were immediately dangerous. The girls stayed together like always.

Besides Rina, Yayoi only had one other lasting friendship in high school. This was with one of her male Senpais, Shinozuka Kadri. He was short for his age and had distinctly foreign traits such as dark-blond hair and green eyes. (Apparently, he came from a large family and his mother was full English, becoming a "Shinozuka" by marriage alone.) Yayoi met him at age fifteen, when Kadri volunteered to be part of Rina's new band-in-the-works. Even though he was a year older than her, Kadri acted so goofy and childlike that Yayoi began to see him as the little brother she never had. Dropping the senpai title and ignoring his surname, she just switched to calling him "Kadri." In turn, Kadri teased Yayoi and called her Kuni-kun in reference to her family name Kunizuka.

In the winter, after Yayoi had turned sixteen, she and Kadri visited Rina's house. While Rina made tea for everyone in the kitchen, Kadri and Yayoi teased each other until something came up. Yayoi stated that Kadri would never guess Rina's signature tea, the variety she liked best to make. Kadri answered "Jasmine" automatically, and Yayoi grew suspicious.

"This isn't your first time here?" she asked.

"No, I've been over a couple times to practice music with Rina," Kadri answered with a smile. "Her mom wanted to have tea so the three of us did. Rina made green tea with Jasmine flowers, and went on a long rant about Jasmine."

"Fine, whatever," Yayoi said, her mood suddenly spoiled.

The next day, she made sure to eat lunch at school with only Rina. The two girls chatted out on the school roof, away from most other people.

"Kadri-senpai's an amazing drummer," Rina said between mouthfuls of rice. "I really think we can get this band off the ground pretty soon if we keep working at it. In a few years, we'll be popular in this city, and sell our music on the Net too. I was worried we would never find a decent drummer, but Kadri-senpai is really talented!"

Yayoi frowned and picked at her bento lunch unenthusiastically. "Well, I'm sorry we can't all be as 'amazing' as Kadri. My pathetic guitar would only drag your band down."

Rina laughed. "That's not true at all, Ya-chan. I've been giving you guitar lessons all year so that you're good enough to play in a real band. But you should choose another band for yourself besides mine. I don't want you to be a band member, Ya-chan, because I want to perform for YOU. I want to sing to YOU. I'm dedicating the band to both my Uncle and to you. Besides, it's not like you're useless. You're good with all kinds of computer stuff I don't have a clue about. So it'll be up to you to create our site on the Net. And your other important job is keeping me cheered up."

Yayoi remained unresponsive for a minute. Then she put her arms around Rina's shoulders and brushed her face against Rina's cheek, giving it a light kiss before withdrawing again.

"My, my Ya-chan," Rina giggled. "Aren't you feeling affectionate today?"

"More like possessive," Yayoi muttered. Aloud she asked frankly, "Rina, you don't have a crush on Kadri, do you? I heard he was at your house with you alone. Why were you alone?"

"Don't be an idiot, Ya-chan," Rina chuckled. "We weren't alone. My mom was with us most of the time. Besides, we were just practicing a song. Now listen, I like Kadri-senpai as a friend, but I don't 'like' him in 'that way' at all. It's funny you brought it up, because I was going to ask whether YOU fancied Kadri."

Yayoi's face lost its coolness. "D-do we LOOK like a couple or something?!"

"Well you look like you might like each other," shrugged Rina. "I mean, you're the only underclassman who just calls him by his first name without even using honorifics. You rarely talk to anyone, but you always respond when HE starts teasing you. And haven't you noticed Kadri-senpai blushing half the time he tries to talk to you? Say, Ya-chan. Why don't you go out with him?"

It proved difficult to hide the conflicted feelings Yayoi felt. Her first thought was that she had never wanted to go out with a boy, and furthermore the only person she could imagine having a date with would be Rina. On the other hand, nobody had ever asked Yayoi on a date. If Kadri asked her out, maybe she should try it once just for kicks. No, she thought; if Kadri truly liked her, he deserved to have Yayoi take him seriously. Maybe she should give him a chance.

"Won't things change with you and me if I started dating Kadri?" Yayoi asked.

"Don't think so far ahead," the other girl replied cheerfully. "I have it on very good authority that he wants to take you out. So why don't you try it once? Then come talk to me and we'll see how we feel. We can meet up in that park after your date."

"Uh—well, ok, I guess," Yayoi mumbled quietly. "But how are you sure Kadri likes me?"

Just then, Kadri walked onto the roof, already blushing to his ears. "G-good morning, Takizaki-san, and Kuni-kun—um, I mean Kunizuki-san. Um… K-Kunizuka-san… could I talk to you for a minute? Takizaki, c-could you give us a minute?"

"Wait," whispered Yayoi, but Rina had already stood up with a big smile on her delicate face. She told Kadri to take as long as she needed, and she would take a stroll to the women's toilet. Before Yayoi knew it, she was alone with Kadri, and he stood before her, blushing, and scratching at his light, scraggly hair. A long, tense silence followed before Kadri finally spoke.

"Kunizuka-san, I like you. I'm serious, so don't you dare try to be sarcastic. I mean I really have a serious crush on you. We've been friends almost a year. Kuni-kun… I want to ask if you would go on a date with me after school this Friday. I'll take you a good restaurant I know."

"Ok fine," Yayoi said with a small sigh of irritation.

Kadri's green eyes widened. "J-just like that? I mean, you're ok with it? I mean, uh, wait—how do YOU feel? I mean, do you like me too?"

"I don't know if I like you," replied Yayoi coolly, "but I do respect you. I think you deserve for me to at least give you a chance. But I'm not ready to promise anything besides this dinner. And please don't kiss me," she added rather coldly; "I don't really like it when people touch me."

"Well," sighed Kadri, "it's not quite the answer I was hoping for, but it's a hell of a lot better than staying quiet about it. Let's try it together, Kuni-kun. This Friday!"

***Break***

The date with Kadri started out awkward and ended up going downhill from there. First of all, Kadri came dressed in a full suit and tie, and Yayoi, who had no idea she was supposed to dress "nicely," felt completely out of place with her gray jeans and simple black top. Furthermore, while Yayoi felt rather proud of Kadri for cleaning himself up so well, she was also painfully aware that she was not attracted to him physically at all. Discussion seemed painfully slow, since neither party could think of the right things to say. The restaurant food proved awfully expensive and not to Yayoi's tastes, so she ended up feeling incredibly guilty.

Half way through desert, Kadri abruptly said, "I know! We should kiss."

"Here?!" exclaimed Yayoi. "And no, I already said no about that. What's with you?"

Kadri frowned and a strand of light colored hair fell into his face. "I'm sorry," he sighed; "it's just that I have no idea how to get my feelings through to you. I thought if we kissed on the way home, we would both know for sure how we felt. Maybe I should just take a hint…"

"We're not leaving till we eat desert," said Yayoi impassively.

Taking the statement as encouragement, Kadri reached out and softly took hold of Yayoi's hand where it rested on the table.

"There, it's not a kiss; it's a compromise," Kadri smiled. "Listen, I just want you to know how much I care about you. This past year, having you around… it was like a sunbeam came to my dark world. Things might have been awkward this time, but… I hope you'll give me another chance to prove myself to you, my dear Youi-san."

Yayoi pulled her hand away, feeling like a hundred shards of ice had hit her. "What did you just call me?" she asked in a severe voice.

"Oh I'm sorry," Kadri laughed. "Maybe I should ask before suddenly using your first name, huh? I meant to say Kuni… Kunizuki-san."

"That's wrong too, idiot!" shouted Yayoi, entering one of her strange, angry outbursts. She ignored Kadri's attempts to speak and shouted, "A year! A YEAR you've known me and you still screwed it up! No, shut up! I'm done with you!"

Yayoi stood up and started storming towards the door. She heard Kadri pleading with her to wait, but she ignored him. Before reaching the exit, the young woman felt Kadri's hand on her shoulder, trying to stop her. Yayoi turned around and slapped him in the face. Then she left.

Running as fast as she could through the dusky streets, Yayoi soon reached the city park with its array of herb gardens and flowerbeds, where she and Rina had so often come to play or talk during the last four years. The sky was lit with orange and yellow and the sun set, and Yayoi hoped the park had not closed yet. To her relief, she saw Rina standing on the edge of one of the flower gardens with her pink scarf and her short hair, now dyed a dark blue color, moving in the wind. She was several inches shorter than Yayoi, and if she lacked somewhat in womanly wiles it was only because she still had some growing to do. Most adorable of all were her smooth skin and indescribably cute face, but Yayoi could not see her face or hold her hand from this distance. She ran on, reached Rina, and without any warning, leapt on her with an embrace that tackled her.

For a moment, Rina lay still among the flowers, smiling up at Yayoi, who had landed on top of her. Then she pulled herself up part-way, just enough to reach up and undo the tie on Yayoi's long, black hair. Their faces were so close they nearly touched, and Yayoi felt something like gravity pulling her forward, making her want to kiss the soft pink lips in front of her eyes.

"Wait," she said quietly, diverting her eyes. "Rina, what is my name?"

"You are," replied Rina, "my own dear Yayoi Kunizuka."

Waiting no longer, Yayoi pressed her lips onto Rina's, and when Rina responded in kind, they sealed their first kiss. Neither of them really knew what they were doing, but they held each other for some time, kissing again and again, with Rina running her hands through Yayoi's long, thick hair and Yayoi feeling the curves of Rina's sides and hips.

Rina suddenly laughed. "Someone's going to see us and then you'll be terribly embarrassed," she predicted, "and confused, too. Come on, Ya-chan, think. Is this what best friends should do with each other?"

"You're much more than a friend—you're my lover," replied Yayoi candidly. "I'm not confused anymore. I know you and I are different from other girls because we're attracted to the same sex. I know why you set me up with Kadri, too. You wanted to prove it, right? That we love each other."

Smiling and blushing slightly, Rina nodded. "I wanted you to come running back to me. If you did, then I'd be right, and if you didn't, well, that would have sucked. I believed in you, though. Still," she chuckled, "I never imagined you'd just tackle me out of nowhere like that. So what do you say? Want to stay and make out in the gardens all night?"

"I want to," Yayoi answered, de-tangling herself from Rina, "but I can't."

"Ya-chan, you're worried about the park closing? Come on—our hues won't get clouded from breaking the rule just once."

"That's not it," Yayoi frowned, standing up. "I had another outburst. I felt so angry it's difficult to describe. I hit Kadri pretty hard, might have busted one of his eyes. The street scanners were going off all the way I ran here. My hue looked fairly cloudy. I think people will start looking for me soon and make me go through another mandatory therapy program."

Rina grabbed Yayoi's hand, pulled herself up, and snuggled into her lover's embrace. "Man," she sighed, "that Sybil System is a total mood killer. Alright then, I'll walk you to your house. I'm sure some cop or other will be waiting. Ya-chan, I'll come visit you every day at therapy. I promise."

The girls walked home hand in hand. They would remain together for the next three years.

***Break***

Rina started her band, "Prophecy" during the girls' last year of high school. Many of the songs Rina wrote contained subtle criticisms of the Sybil System. Prophecy only played at certain bars and meeting taverns, including places so sketchy that Yayoi wondered about the peoples' Psycho-Passes. Although Prophecy sold music on the Net, they did so obscurely, as if not wanting to attract too much attention. When Yayoi started to manage the Net sites for the band, she finally realized what might be going on.

"You haven't applied for authorization, have you?" Yayoi asked one day when she slept over at Rina's house, sharing a bed. "I don't get it, Rina. Didn't you want to be popular? The only way to do that—and to avoid trouble—is to receive authorization from Sybil."

Rina hid her head on Yayoi's ample chest and sighed. In a minute, she sat up and told Yayoi, "I know I might get in trouble. This is why I wanted you to start your own band all along, so you don't get dragged in with my messes. Yayoi, start your own band and get authorized. It will make you happy." She lay down again, on her back.

"Is there something you're hiding?" Yayoi asked sternly. "Don't try to handle it alone. Don't leave me out." She gently moved on top of Rina and kissed her mouth, her cheeks, her neck. "Let me in, Rina."

For once, the cheerful singer looked melancholy. "I can't tell you everything, Yayoi. But someday I will. When you're ready. I will tell you, though, I'm not going to college. There's a wonderful market for upcoming musicians in Shimo-Kitazawa. I'm probably moving there to my Aunt's house after high school graduation."

"Kitazawa…that's on the western side of Tokyo, right?" Yayoi questioned, stroking her girlfriend's face. "You know, that's close to where my internship on drone operation will be. It should pay just enough for some cheap rent somewhere. Does your Aunt have a room to rent out?"

"She does!" Rina gasped. "But that means you would be living with me. I don't want to get you into any trouble or make you go to therapy again. Are you sure about this idea?"

Yayoi nodded. "Don't worry. It's not like a few sketchy songs will turn me into a criminal. Even so, I'll start a small band too, since you think it will be better for me. But I won't ever just let you walk out of my life. I'll follow you wherever you go."

Rina smiled. "I love you, Ya-chan."


	3. The Isolation Facility

3: The Isolation Facility

Yayoi's life would soon see major upheaval again. For a time, things had been going well. Rina and Yayoi lived together, though they kept their relationship secret from Rina's Aunt. Having finished her internship on drones, Yayoi acquired a well-paying part-time job in a factory, managing the drones that assembled various machines. The rest of her time she spent developing her band Amalgam. It was smaller than Prophecy and despite being approved by the System, Amalgam also turned out to be less popular. When Rina said she had a concert coming up at a certain club, Yayoi asked if they were hiring other bands too. They ended up giving her a spot in the night's show. At that time, Yayoi was nineteen.

"Listen," said Rina in slight irritation, "we're playing for a secret group. I have no doubt that some of them are already latent criminals. I don't want you talking to anybody at that club. Wait backstage for me until I say you can come out."

Rina said that much, but she never mentioned that she herself might be dangerous for Yayoi. She said nothing about how she had been avoiding street scanners and regular Psycho-Pass tests. She explained nothing because she was terrified of what she had to do; breaking up was the only way to keep Yayoi safe from having her hue tainted, maybe permanently. After the concert, Rina decided, she would tell Yayoi the whole truth, and break up with her. She hid her tears behind a smiling face.

Even from Yayoi's limited backstage view, Rina looked and sounded truly beautiful as she and her band performed. Her voice always sounded so strong in contrast to her girlishly cute face, and she sang with passion. Her hair, a bit longer than before, had been dyed a lighter shade of blue. The young singer's body had changed too: she was well proportioned, and though she was a bit thin, "her rack turned out really cute," in Kadri's words. Rina's signature performing outfit caught much attention as well: she typically wore a maroon, strapless top, showing some midriff, a fashionable dark grey skirt, and a large pink cloak-and-hood with yellow trimming. To Yayoi, however, it didn't matter what Rina wore: she always looked stunning.

Yayoi watched Rina as if in a trance, and it took some time before she noticed one of her nails had cracked and a few drops of blood were oozing from the corner of the nail. Just then, Rina finished her performance and hurried backstage. As soon as Yayoi saw her girlfriend, she knew something was terribly wrong. Rina tried to best to stay strong, and casually pulled Yayoi aside. After kissing her lover for the last time, the charismatic young singer began cheerfully,

"Split finger tips are no good for a guitarist! Don't you wear nail polish? Look, isn't this bottle cute? Some kinds of polish help strengthen a guitarist's nails, but even the cheap ones will do. This one is my favorite. Come on, sit down."

Yayoi said nothing while Rina produced a heart-shaped bottle of metallic pink nail polish. Both young women sat on the floor and Rina began to carefully paint her partner's nails. Now and then she would look up and smile with her amber eyes fixated on Yayoi's blue ones. But Yayoi could tell her girlfriend was simply pretending. She had something serious to say.

"You know, the two of us need to think about our futures," Rina began calmly. "We can't—"

"Stop trying to protect me!" Yayoi snapped, standing up abruptly. "That's what this is about, right? You've gotten yourself some really sketchy friends and you don't want me near them because I could be tainted. I already know that. Stop acting like we're going to break up over this!"

Rina slipped the nail polish bottle into Yayoi's bag, with tears beginning to cloud her eyes. "Please take this with you, Ya-chan, and go home. If you're already so upset, you shouldn't be performing here where so many people have high Crime Coefficients. It's easier for your own number to rise when you're emotionally vulnerable. But Yayoi, I'm not just afraid of you talking to people in the club. I'm afraid I could taint you, too." She tried to smile, but tears flowed down her smooth, soft face. "So… this is it, Ya-chan. It's over."

"No," answered Yayoi in a dangerous voice. "I refuse to accept that. We've always been together. You can't abandon me like everyone else does. You can't."

"I'm sorry," Rina said weakly and shakily. "I'm sorry. But go home, Ya-chan. Go away."

Hearing these words from her dearest friend and lover felt no different than being stabbed by a knife. Yayoi fell on her knees, shaking with quiet sobs. Bitter tears coursed down her usually stern face. Rina did not help her; she left, presumably to tell the event organizer that Amalgam would not be playing after all.

Yayoi dragged herself to her feet with effort, gasping, as though a knife truly had pierced her. But the young woman intended to save some of her dignity; she couldn't scream and weep here. Yayoi began to limp away from the stage and out the back entrance. She left the pub behind and staggered along the dark street, blinded by tears and stricken with psychological shock.

This feeling… Yayoi remembered it vaguely. It was the sense of floating away from reality, watching her own actions as if seeing them from a distance outside her body… the sense that the buildings and people around her were not real, but part of some bizarre dream… the sense of heaviness that prevented her from even speaking. The same dissociation had occurred when the police took Yayoi's mother away and when her mother told her not to come see her anymore. Yayoi had felt the dissociation, too, on random days, without knowing the triggers. She felt completely emotionally numbed.

When street scanners began to go off, Yayoi heard nothing. When a cop began to chase her, she didn't look back, but kept slowly staggering forward. Even when the agent ordered her to stop, she felt no sense of imminent danger. And when the Dominator hit her, Yayoi felt no pain. She sank into blissful unconsciousness.

***Break***

For the first two days, Yayoi could not move or speak. Robotic "nurses" frequently checked her vital signs and adjusted her I.V. to give her more nutrients and fluids. However, Yayoi knew she had not been transferred to a hospital; her room was a cell, completely white-walled except for the transparent front wall. On the third day, the attending physician (only a temporary guest) entered the room, and Yayoi found that she could speak again.

"Why wasn't I taken to a hospital?" she demanded. "Isn't it usual for latent criminals to recover at a hospital and see their families before being moved directly to an Isolation Facility?"

"That," replied the doctor, "is only the case for patients of a certain danger level… specifically, for those whose Crime Coefficient is under 130. When the Public Safety Bureau first took you in, they nearly had to use lethal force. Your number at that time was 288. You are a strange case. Earlier the same evening, street scanners recorded your number as approximately 82. We figured something extremely traumatizing must have happened to change you. Then your case became even stranger. Starting the moment you woke up, your Crime Coefficient began falling drastically. In a single day it dropped from 288 to 130. It dropped a little more, but then stabilized at 118. This type of severe fluctuation usually only happens to Patients who experience psychosis."

"Are you saying I'm crazy or something?" Yayoi snapped harshly.

"I wouldn't go straight to 'crazy'," replied the doctor without much emotion. "But when we fully analyzed your Neuro-Cymatic scans, we found a pattern corresponding with a certain disorder. Back before the wars, they called it Borderline Personality Disorder, but later renamed it Dyslimbia, since it's mostly a malfunction of the limbic system. It's exceptionally rare, since most people with the Disorder killed themselves in the Reaper Years."

"Ok, but what does it mean for me?" asked Yayoi impatiently. "Is it the reason for my anger outbursts and social problems? Is it the reason my Crime Coefficient can fluctuate so much? And if so, isn't there a chance that my number will drop again in just a few days?"

"I see you're quite sharp for your age." The doctor folded his arms and his grey, tired eyes met Yayoi's fiery blue ones. "Yes, Dyslimbia is likely the cause for any continuous interpersonal problems you have had. One of the symptoms of Dyslimbia is severe mood swings, another is outbursts of inappropriate anger, and yet another symptom is temporary dissociation from reality. You don't hear voices or see hallucinations, but you feel distant from reality when under severe stress. Any of those three symptoms could contribute to a fluctuating Crime Coefficient."

Yayoi could vaguely understand. The Crime Coefficient was only one part of the overall Psycho-Pass and measured the probability and propensity of a person committing a serious crime. In that case, it made sense that when she was overtaken by rage or detached from reality, Yayoi's number could change dramatically, only to return to "normal" later. The only problem was that Yayoi's number had not returned to normal, but had stayed at 118 for roughly two days.

"I don't wish to discourage you from trying to recover," continued the doctor, diverting his eyes away, "but it IS statistically rare for a Latent Criminal to return to society. You'll need to work hard and trust in this facility's methods. We believe we know the reason your Crime Coefficient has stayed above 100. Multiple witnesses told us you were often seen with a certain Rina Takizaki, the leader of an unauthorized band and a member of a secretive group of anarchists. She is probably already a latent criminal. Did you come in close contact with Takizaki on the night of your capture?"

The memories hit Yayoi like sharp pains. Pain, shame, and wretched grief flooded over her. The logical part of her mind suspected that Rina had been trying to protect her by breaking up suddenly. However, Yayoi's emotional side told her that Rina was a liar—she never said she was part of an anarchist group—and that Rina had simply decided to abandoned her. Yayoi could say nothing aloud; she could only nod.

"Being around Takizaki-san must have tainted you," stated the doctor. "The Sybil System had judged you as a Latent Criminal and has placed you in one of the United Tokyo Living Centers, known to the public as Confinement or Isolation Facilities. You will learn the rules as you live here. That said, if by some miracle your Crime Coefficient drops below 100, you will be released and enrolled in some therapy to prepare you for society. Now, if you're able to stand—yes, that's it—then I can release you from medical supervision, and be on own my way."

The doctor called in the nurse-drones to remove the I.V. and verify that Yayoi's vitals were normal. "There's one more thing," the physician added before leaving. "Some of the drones are slowly being updated to call Patients by their family name, but I wouldn't count on that. You had best forget your name. From now on, you are Patient 514."

Now able to stand and move around fairly well, Yayoi responded to the doctor by savagely kicking over one of the mini-drone "nurses." It could not pick itself up, but it began sending out an alarm. The doctor shook his head and quickly left the room through the sliding door. Hoping the door and front wall was made of something like glass, Yayoi picked up the second drone and hurled it at the door seconds after it shut behind the doctor. The clear substance did not even crack, but the drone was dented and damaged.

"Let me out of here!" Yayoi shouted over the alarm signal, kicking the drones in fury. "I won't stay in here and lose my mind like my mom! I won't let Rina abandon me! Let me out!"

A hissing sound took the young woman by surprise. She saw a strange red gas pouring in from a few hidden vents in the ceiling. By the time she thought of holding her breath, the gas had spread through the entire room, and Yayoi had already inhaled some. She felt extremely drowsy. Soon she could hold her breath no more and began to cough as she breathed in the red smoke. She felt so sleepy she could not even move. Before she slipped into unconsciousness again, she heard a human come in and pick up the drones. Before leaving, he said,

"You'd better get those outbursts under control, 514, or you'll never make it out alive."

***Break***

Yayoi had only just turned nineteen, and would be in confinement for a full two years. Some days, like her first day, she lost sight of her goal of returning to society, and caused trouble for the facility. Most of the time, however, Yayoi acted compliant to the rules and truly worked hard to change her Psycho-Pass. The first year turned out to be the most difficult, as the young woman's Psycho-Pass kept rising and falling every few weeks only to return to 118. That year she also had to accept the bitter truths that both her father and Rina refused to visit, and that she could not get a hold of her guitar. Several times during the first year, Yayoi tried various ways to kill or injure herself, simply out of rage and hopelessness, but she never succeeded. The staff always found out prevented it.

The typical day for Yayoi became so ingrained in her that she would have trouble ever forgetting it. The facility served breakfast at 7am, lunch at noon, and dinner at 6pm, with food as bad as prison food in other countries. The facility forced Yayoi to take various medications with each meal; when she refused, she was punished by having her few personal belongings confiscated. From 8am to 2pm she undertook supervised, isolated "work" such as debugging the facility's computers and fixing broken drones. Yayoi did this to start paying her debt to the facility, which had charged her a small fortune for various damages such as the instance of throwing that nurse drone. Meetings with therapists were voluntary but encouraged, and Yayoi participated for three hours a day from 1pm to 4pm. When her Crime Coefficient remained under 120, she was allowed to attend group therapy from 4pm to 6pm. After dinner, the young woman had almost four hours of free time before "bedtime", or enforced quiet hours, at 10pm. She spent this time doing whatever she could to entertain herself with her one black bag of allowed personal belongings.

There was no privacy in the facility since cameras and guards were everywhere, but at the same time the place was lonely, since Patients were generally not allowed to talk to each other. (Otherwise they would continue to "taint" each other.) A toilet and small shower were located behind a curtain in the back of the white-walled cell, but cameras were installed even there. Even if Yayoi found a blind spot on the way to the therapy or work rooms, she was always escorted by a guard or drone, so she was literally watched every second. At one point, Yayoi managed to break her drone escort and run, but every door to every room was locked with unknown number codes. Guards came after her, and their strength made Yayoi realize that although she was tall, she was also very thin and physically weak. Anytime an act of rebellion like this occurred, she would either be injected with a sedative by guards, or pass out when the red gas was released into her cell.

"I figured it out," Yayoi said to her therapist one day. "I know why people here don't get back into society. The Sybil System defines law and order. If someone wishes and intends to break a serious law, their Crime Coefficient rises to 100, and they are imprisoned. The conditions of these "facilities" naturally make everyone desire to escape or rebel. But escaping an Isolation Center or doing any harm to it is a serious case of lawbreaking according to Sybil. This means that everybody's number will stay at 100 or above no matter how much medicine and therapy they undertake. In other words, these facilities are designed so that nobody CAN get out."

"Do you think you might be thinking too rigidly?" said the therapist, a female in her forties. "It's still possible for the brain to change and adapt even when society has no choice but to keep you confined. With strength of will, enough therapy, and the right combination of medications, your Crime Coefficient can certainly drop below 100. The mind's amazing ability to adapt-"

"What you're talking about is commonly called brainwashing," interrupted Yayoi in an ironic tone. "You try brainwash us to love our lives as pathetic prisoners. When a person no longer has the hope or desire to live outside, they have also lost all interest in committing 'crime.' From what I can tell, the only way to be released from this place is to stop wanting to be released. This paradox may have been what Sybil intended to create from the beginning."

"Please don't accuse us of something as drastic and negative as 'brainwashing'," the therapist argued. "You should know by now that we respect the lives and wills of every Patient here. You are not a prisoner, 514, but a Patient. How long have you been having thoughts that people are trying to brainwash you, and that you're a prisoner?"

"Since I got here, genius."

The therapist frowned. "I'm going to recommend that your doctor give you an increased dose of your antipsychotic. It should help control any paranoid delusions."

The therapy session was over. Yayoi hid her fury behind a cool face. "That medicine is the one that makes me so tired all the time," she thought. "If they increase it, will I even be able to work? It's still hard to believe that someone with such a nice face is just trying to shut me up from speaking the truth. Still, I'll take the medicine. I'll get back to society or die trying. I want to see Rina again."

Yayoi had never gotten rid of the heart-shaped bottle of nail polish Rina gave to her.

***Break***

During Yayoi's second year in isolation, her father came to visit her just once. They barely spoke. Morihiro was still an ardent supporter of the Sybil System, and refused to interact with people who might "taint" his Psycho-Pass. Still, he said he owed at least something to a member of his own family. He had come to drop off Yayoi's guitar and a pack of Ernie Ball guitar strings. After delivering the items, he told his daughter, "Sayonara," and walked out of her life, probably for good. Yayoi tried to block out the overwhelming sadness of being treated this way by her own father, and instead she focused on the simple bit of happiness of owning her guitar again. Once the staff looked over it, they gave approval for her to keep it in her cell.

Yayoi practiced her guitar every day, but after just two months, it definitely needed to be restrung. She did so with the strings her father had left, and her guitar rang out clearly and distinctly once more. After another few months, however, one of strings saw too much strain and simply broke. Yayoi started requesting to purchase more guitar strings whatever little money was left in her outside account. The requests were ignored, and after the third oversight she became so angry that the staff once again quieted her with the red gas.

It was around that time that Yayoi began to have flashbacks of Rina. Playing the guitar again might have been the triggering factor. For a long time now, Yayoi felt like Rina had been a mistake all along and should be entirely forgotten. But dreams of Rina plagued her sleep, and sometimes during the day she sat up gasping, coming out of a vivid flashback. Yayoi began to think of Rina obsessively. She might have gone downhill from there, lost in regret, rage, and sorrow, if not for the appearance of Inspector Shinya Kogami.

 **(A/N: In the series, Yayoi is said to be around 22 when Akane meets her, but I always envisioned her a tiny bit older, so she will end up 24 when she meets Akane in this version of events.)**


	4. Enforcer Kunizuka

The criminal justice system as it was known in the previous century died soon after the people voted to have Sybil take over law and order. The Sybil System decided the laws with the help of advisory teams of gifted lawyers and social analysts. Sybil also replaced the classic police system and the fair trial system with one large organization: the MWPSB, also known as the Public Safety Bureau. Rather than having trails, the people caught by the MWPSB were either placed in therapy, isolation centers, or, if their Crime Coefficient was 300 or more, killed on the spot.

The jobs were done by Enforcers (once criminals or latent criminals) supervised by Inspectors (upstanding citizens capable of policing and detective work). Sybil made sure all their actions were in line with its laws by controlling the Dominators, the guns that could read a person's Crime Coefficient and could shoot lethally, temporarily paralyze, or have their triggers locked by the Sybil System. Few other guns existed in Japan except military supplies, and citizens were certainly not allowed to operate any firearms. To activate and use a Dominator, one must be either an authorized Inspector or Enforcer. Inspector Shinya Kogami came to offer Yayoi a position as an Enforcer.

Since Yayoi wanted to return to society, being an Enforcer was out of the question, but there was something she liked about the Inspectors nevertheless. Inspectors Kogami and Ginoza were relatively young Inspectors, both about twenty-five. Although their personalities were clearly different, each of the young men had a certain fire and ferocity in their eyes. Yayoi could not help thinking that working under them might not be so bad. Furthermore, Sybil's Aptitude Test, which determined one's optimal occupations, reported that Yayoi possessed the propensity for Enforcer work. However, none of this could convince her. Inspector Kogami visited several times asking for Yayoi to join him, and she declined each time. That is, she declined until Kogami began talking about the criminal case currently under his own investigation.

"At first we thought the instances of destroyed street scanners were unconnected," he explained, "but when we investigated the culprits' movements, it turned out that they all hang around in Kitazawa. We believe an antisocial community operates there, and we wish to take it out entirely. We need your help. You used to be a musician based in Kitazawa. Isn't that right, Yayoi Kunizuka of Amalgam? You must know the area like the back of your hand."

Shocked by hearing someone call her by name, Yayoi remained silent for a moment. It took her a minute to think straight with all the drugs the facility put her on, but then she realized it. The antisocial community in Kitazawa could very well be the group of anarchists with which Rina was involved. If Yayoi became an Enforcer, would she get the chance to see Rina again? She hid her hope and excitement under more stubbornness, afraid of being let down.

"Why me?" she demanded, her blue eyes flaming. "Why do you need ME? Because Sybil said I have the Aptitude? You treat Enforcers like your dogs. You want the nose of a hound, not a detective. I refuse to do work like that which might cloud my hue."

Kogami smiled and inquired whether Yayoi wanted to rejoin society so she could play music again. He also casually told her that he knew she had requested guitar strings more than twenty times. Yayoi felt enraged and shouted at the Inspector to leave. To her lasting astonishment, however, Kogami produced a pack of guitar strings and held it up to the glass. For a moment, Yayoi hesitated. She desperately wanted to see Rina, even if they had to be enemies. Finally she said,

"Alright, I'll try helping with this one case. If I don't like it, you'll leave me alone after that."

The arrangements were made. Yayoi was transferred to living quarters in the tall, black building that served as headquarters for several local Divisions of the MWPSB. She soon met all the members of Division One, led by Kogami and Ginoza. Yayoi's first impression of Sasayama was that he was a reckless idiot and a pervert. Before day one of investigation had ended, he flirted with her a dozen times and harassed her once going for a feel. The others were not as difficult to deal with.

Yayoi first met Masaoka and Kagari when they were drinking together in the cafeteria area. Masaoka seemed like a good enough person, though Yayoi could tell from the things he said that breaking the law for something he believed in would never have been a problem for him. Kagari at once reminded Yayoi of Kadri, not as much in his looks—since he had peculiar ginger hair and brown eyes—but in his voice, his face expressions, and his lighthearted attitude. The last person to meet was Shion Karanomori.

Shion proved not only intelligent and laidback, but also undeniably drop-dead gorgeous. Yayoi blushed when she quietly introduced herself to the twenty-five or twenty-six year old woman. She was not Japanese but instead a foreign beauty with golden-blond hair, a tall and curvy build, enticing amber eyes, and a sly, attractive voice. The only thing annoying about her was how often she smoked, but Yayoi would someday come to love that about her too. Because she still loved Rina, Yayoi told herself at first that she did not find Shion at all attractive. Besides, she thought, the golden-haired diva was probably far out of Yayoi's league.

***Break***

It only took a day for Yayoi to analyze her own data and Kogami's, and determine two possible places in Kitazawa where a radical organization may be hiding. Masaoka was sent to Yellow Hood Tavern to stake it out for signs of the radicals. Sasayama took watch over the second location, Club 27. Yayoi sat in wait with Kogami and Ginoza, and before long she heard Sasayama through the comm. link saying he had spotted some suspicious people. In the background behind Sasayama's voice, Yayoi clearly heard Rina's voice singing. That meant she and her band were there right then, providing the music for Club 27. Unfortunately, the idiot Sasayama gave himself away too early by shooting a drug dealer, causing a panic in the club. Someone set the place on fire and everybody ran like wild animals out of the building.

At once, Kogami headed towards the club while Ginoza began to call for drone backup, but by that time Yayoi had already disappeared. She managed to sneak away from Ginoza's sight and rush into Club 27 through a secret entrance. She knew the evacuation route that Rina would take while everyone else fled through the main door to escape the fire. There was an underground tunnel leading out to another location several blocks away. Yayoi followed the tunnel and saw a few people escaping, but they had not seen Rina yet. That meant she had yet to come this way. Yayoi stood in waiting for her. She started to feel that strange sense of Dissociation again.

Presently, two people appeared from the shadows and the smoke: Rina and one of her band members. To Yayoi, they barely looked real. Rina gasped when she saw Yayoi, and ran forward to hug her. The hug shook Yayoi out of her dissociation somewhat, so she could at least function and speak. The whole situation still felt unreal, though.

"A-are you alright?" Yayoi asked stiffly.

"Yeah," Rina nodded, holding onto Yayoi's arms. "The fire was pretty far from the stage, so… but what are you doing here, Ya-chan? Did you manage to get discharged?"

"No it's not like that, but… I'm here with the MWPSB."

Rina's expression changed and she back away. "You're with them…?"

Another three people came into view. Yayoi wasn't sure if they were band members or not, but they knew Rina. They apologized for keeping her waiting. Each of them carried a bag filled with some kind of weapon. They said it was all they managed to save. Then one of them looked suspiciously at Yayoi and asked after her identity. Yayoi said nothing.

"She's not important for you guys," Rina told the weapon carriers calmly, "so go on ahead. I'll catch up to you in just a minute."

When the four others had left, only Yayoi and Rina stood in the tunnel, facing each other. Yayoi looked grim. She had already made up her mind. She had wanted to believe that Rina simply got involved with this group because she was pushed by her extremist Aunt, but it seemed clear as day now that Rina's involvement was voluntarily and that her "club members" were a dangerous organization. The two young women had known each other so long that each could almost read the other's thoughts. Rina saw the look on Yayoi's face, and her usually cheerful, childlike face became suddenly serious.

"We want to take down the Sybil System someday," she stated. "We're a resistance force."

"Rina, if you do this you'll become more than a latent criminal!" Yayoi snapped with sudden passion. "You could be executed! Tell me you're not risking your life over this!"

"You're… different than how I thought you would be," Rina said slowly and somberly. "Hey, Yayoi? Why don't you fight along with us?"

"That's not possible."

"Is it because you're from an 'authorized' band?" Rina continued. "No? Then why? You how know society works: even if the people elect politicians, they're only figureheads. As long as all the bureaucrats are chosen by Sybil, calling Japan a democracy is a lie. People have become slaves, giving control of their entire lives to the Sybil System, and they don't even see it! But…" Sentiment entered Rina's voice and she suddenly extended her hand out to Yayoi. "…Our music will be a major force! We can reach the hearts of the people. With our music, we can change the world!"

"That's never what I wanted," Yayoi shook her head. "All this time, I've only wanted to stand on stage together with YOU again! That's all I cared about!"

Rina shook her head too, saying sternly, "That's not enough! When they locked you up, I realized that I was powerless! Just having fun won't solve anything. If you don't have any power, everything you try to do is pointless! We ARE powerless, Yayoi, but you could help us!"

All the hurt and fury in Yayoi's mind disappeared under her mask of imperturbability. After all the time in Isolation, she had nearly perfected the mask. Her face and blue eyes looked impassive and cold. Only a faint trace of her animosity crept into her voice when she answered Rina's plea.

"Everything was fine when you and I were together… but things changed, didn't they?" She drew from beneath the back of her coat the distinctive weapon handed to her by Inspector Kogami. She pointed it at Rina and said, "This is a Dominator—the eyes of Sybil. Rina, please come with me. It's still not too late. Keep going, and you will never be able to turn back. So come with me and undergo a rehab program right away."

Rina's eyes narrowed and her face twisted into a picture of biting sarcasm. "You think you're going to be able to shoot me? You won't be able to shoot."

Suddenly Rina started walking forward, and Yayoi yelled at her to stop or she really would shoot. Rina kept going, and briskly passed by her ex, who had not pulled the trigger. But this was not over; Yayoi whirled around and pointed the Dominator at Rina's retreating back. She took a quick breath and then pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. An electronic voice came from the Dominator saying, "Invalid user. Trigger will be locked." In a panic, Yayoi tried to shoot multiple times. She would not let Rina walk away from her again! Still, the trigger remained locked and Rina vanished into the dark.

Unbeknownst to Yayoi, Kogami had not registered her as a valid user for the Dominator yet. He must have set the entire thing up to see if the young woman could truly pull the trigger. In that case, Inspector Kogami should be nearby, Yayoi thought. She turned out to be right; soon enough Sasayama and Kogami walked into view to escort her back outside.

While Kogami assured Ginoza that this had all been his plan, Yayoi sat in thought. Holding the Dominator had felt right somehow. If she became an Enforcer, she might be able to stop other people like Rina from going down "the wrong path"—this was what Yayoi told herself. In her heart, however, she made the decision out of pure spite.

"I'll do it," she told Inspector Kogami. "I will become an Enforcer."

***Break***

Twenty-one year old Yayoi found life as an Enforcer felt extremely strange at first. On the one hand, she still felt like a prisoner, since she wasn't allowed to leave Division One Headquarters without an Inspector escorting her. On the other hand, things were infinitely better than they had been in confinement. There were no cameras in the showers, meal times and types were largely her own decision, she could play guitar or work on drones whenever she wasn't assigned a mission, there was no red gas nor guards shooting her with sedatives, and she only had to take medicine or attend therapy if she so desired.

Then there was the social aspect of her new life. The members of Division One loved team spirit and trusted each other out in the field, even on critical missions. Most of the members tried to act lighthearted, as if they were not all in a terrible situation. Sometimes, it seemed they thought of each other as family. Yayoi was eventually accepted into this "family", and in truth she loved this—it simply felt odd at first, being friends with people whose Crime Coefficients were all higher than hers (excepting the Inspectors). Though Yayoi quickly became fond of her teammates, she still had trouble trusting people and speaking her mind. Most days she stayed rather aloof. To add to the image, she always wore a black suit at work and kept her hair tied in a ponytail. Division One nicknamed her "The Ice Princess."

The missions themselves were far different than what Yayoi had imagined. She thought she would have been too emotional to pull off the duties of an Enforcer, but when it came down to it, Yayoi was one of the best at keeping her head cool in extremely dangerous situations. She was also delighted to find that Division One used many police drones of various types serving various purposes. She became the unofficial drone operator of the group. Something else remained unique about Yayoi, too: she never stopped trying to keep her Crime Coefficient down. Although she shot lawbreakers with the paralyzer mode from time to time, she never shot with the Dominator in lethal mode. She left those situations up to her more criminal comrades.

***Break***

A few months after Yayoi's bitter parting with Rina, a disturbing recording was anonymously delivered to the Criminal Investigation Division of the MWPSB. According to Shion, the group's main intelligence source, it was a video meant to shake up the Enforcers, and the file name contained the word "Kunizuka." The video had not yet been passed on to the "top dogs", so Shion confiscated it and covered the whole thing up. She suspected it had to do with Yayoi. In private, she watched the video herself, understood its purpose, and deleted it.

"It's late," Shion said to herself, lighting a cigarette, "but she's usually up at this hour. I think it's time to pay a visit to the 'prim and proper' Kunizuka-san. This could be interesting."

Shion strolled to the living quarters and soon found Yayoi's small room. When she tried to open the door, she found it locked. Then she heard soft sobbing sounds from within. She knocked on the door loudly.

"Hey in there, honey, just what's wrong?" she called, exhaling a small cloud of smoke. "Come on, why don't you let me in?"

Until she heard Shion's voice, Yayoi had thought that nothing could cheer her up. But somehow she was able to pull herself together, wipe off her face, and unlock the door. She told Shion to please come in and have a seat, and Yayoi would make some tea. Shion told her there was no need for formalities, and that she had come to talk to Yayoi alone. The gold-haired beauty shut the door behind her and took a seat on the bunk, while Yayoi sat slouching despondently at the desk right next to the bunk.

"So, how can I help you?" Yayoi asked without much emotion.

Raising an eyebrow sardonically, Shion answered, "First, you can stop hurting yourself. If you're doing it because you feel ashamed, quit worrying. That video we heard about will never reach the higher-ups. You have nothing to worry about."

Yayoi's eyes widened. How did Shion know she had hurt herself? Taking a quick look at the surface of her desk, Yayoi saw that she had accidentally left the sanitizing alcohol there. At the same time, she realized she was wearing her pale blue pajamas instead of a black suit, and a tiny bloodstain marked the sleeve near her wrist. Yayoi had taken to cutting herself whenever she felt overwhelmed with thoughts of Rina or her past. She had cut herself more this week because of the video incident. Now Shion knew her secret. And not just one secret, either.

"Wait!" said Yayoi sharply. "Karanomori-san, are you saying you deleted that video?"

"Please, call me Shion already. And yes, the video is gone for good."

While Shion took the last puff of cigarette, Yayoi exclaimed, "Hang on! Did you watch it?!"

"Of course," shrugged Shion, putting out her cigarette on an empty plate on the floor.

"Then," said Yayoi in horror, "do you know what it was?"

"Of course," Shion repeated casually. "It was a sex tape. You and… what's her name? …Takizaki? From the anarchist group? I must say, she has strange tastes. Or were YOU the kinky one, little Miss Innocence? Either way, you must have been very close—and you were probably just eighteen, right? Isn't first love wonderful? Anyway, I'm sure your ex-girlfriend sent the video to try to make you look bad. I can't allow any of this Division's precious Enforcers to get fired over something that no longer has any relevance to their lives. I was only looking out for you."

The embarrassment Yayoi felt was so intense that she remained as still as if frozen.

"Could you leave now, please?" she finally asked in a weak voice.

"Don't be such a prude!" Shion answered, laughing heartily at the younger woman's bright red face. "We're all adults here, you know. There's no need to be embarrassed. The higher ups won't ever see it, like I said. So? What are you ashamed of?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Yayoi snapped. "Now you know I'm a… lesbian."

Again Shion laughed. "No problems there, kiddo. I'm one of those types too."

While Yayoi gawked at her in astonishment, Shion stood up, stretched her arms, and headed for the door. She put another cigarette between her lips, but before lighting, she remembered something. She smiled over at her friend, who looked adorable with her long hair down and wearing a baby-blue pajama outfit.

"One more thing." Shion lit the cigarette. "Everybody still calls you The Ice Princess or various failed versions of Kunizuka. May I call you Yayoi? I like to call the people close to me by their real names."

Feeling flattered, Yayoi nodded. "Please do, Shion. Uh, goodnight."

"Night!" Shion waved smilingly and left the room.

Yayoi could barely believe everything that had just happened. Something like a spark appeared deep inside her mind: hope. Maybe Shion was not so far out of her league as she had once thought.


	5. New Hopes, New Heartaches

One of the first big cases Division One undertook turned out to be one of the most gruesome. Someone had taken several lives in an extremely disturbing way, coating and soaking their bodies with special resin that preserved the dead body and made human taxidermy (or "plastination") possible. Victims were dismembered and mutilated in various ways. Kogami and Sasayama both suspected that two men were behind the crime. Then Kogami, the best detective in the Division, finally discovered one of the likely culprits: a man named Touma Kuzaburou. Around the same time, Sasayama went missing, and Kogami said he may have been taken hostage. When the Enforcers and Inspectors tried to raid Touma's apartment, Sasayama was found dead nearby, plastinated and mutilated. Touma disappeared, the plastination crimes stopped, and there was no solid proof of Touma having a partner in crime.

Yayoi was sad to lose Sasayama, even though she hadn't known him for long. He had never been a "bad person" on purpose—he only ended up a latent criminal because he so often acted without thinking. Nearly everything he did was on impulse. Yayoi could somewhat understand. After all, her life also showed a pattern of recklessness: hitting classmates as a child, suddenly ceasing all visits to her mother, thoughtlessly moving in with Rina, impulsively trying to kill herself in Isolation, and rashly trying to shoot Rina down.

Everyone felt the loss of Sasayama keenly, but Kogami took it the worst by far. He seemed to have become traumatized from seeing the grotesque body of his Enforcer friend. His Crime Coefficient climbed higher and higher, finally stopping around 265. The MWPSB had no choice but to remove Kogami from his position as Inspector and demote him to serving the role of Enforcer. This was a real blow to the team, who needed another Inspector. Still, Yayoi empathized with Kogami, too, since she knew the pain of suddenly losing a friend and having her rights stripped.

***Break***

"That bastard Kogami," Kagari sighed, shaking his head and leaning back on one of the main lab's stiff, black couches. "I've been trying to get him to drink with me for weeks. I even ordered a bunch of cocktail mixes and some stupid games. But that guy, he just won't let himself have fun."

"Hell," said Masaoka, "I'll drink with you, kiddo. We just need an occasion."

Shion, still sitting in front of the monitors, lit up a cigarette and said, "A party, huh? It's been a long time since I've been to one. Kagari, you would be as boring to drink with as a college freshman, but, if Masaoka-san will go, I'll have someone moderately intelligent to talk to. I'm in. Ginoza?"

The last Inspector of Division One pushed up his glasses and said coldly, "Why would you think I would even support the idea of a party? I have a lot to do. Besides, you know I'm not a drinking man."

"How about this, Saint Ginoza," Masaoka grinned, "will you show up to the party if it's for a good cause? You don't have to drink; besides, you'd probably be an angry drunk. The point is, I've thought up an occasion. Let's have an evening together to celebrate the Ice Princess."

"Me?!" Yayoi asked in genuine surprise.

"Yeah, we're the same age," sniggered Kagari, "so I know you have a birthday coming up. Isn't that right, Ice Princess? I bet you never had a drinking party when you turned twenty, did you? That settles it! Everyone is hereby invited to the Celebration of Kunizuka's 22supnd/sup Birthday, hosted by yours truly, the king of parties!"

"More like the king of getting drunk too fast and passing out," Ginoza said drily. "Alright, for Kunizuka's sake, I'll come along. I'll supervise you idiots so things don't get out of hand. Remember, alcohol is only allowed in the public kitchen and the lounge next to it."

A few nights later, Yayoi came to the shared kitchen and found Kagari cooking a large batch of homemade karaage. Shion was helping him slice the chicken. Masaoka, already drinking whiskey with ice, was teasing Ginoza; the young Inspector stood with his back to wall looking excessively awkward. Everyone but Ginoza was dressed fairly casually, so Yayoi was glad she had not come in her suit. She felt truly honored by the celebration.

Many humorous and enjoyable events took place that night, as everyone except Ginoza ate and drank; but the main event that stuck in Yayoi's mind was the stupid game "Pair Contest" suggested by a highly intoxicated Kagari. First Yayoi had to put everybody in pairs, and whoever Masaoka judged as the best pair would win. Ginoza and Kagari made up one team, with Shion and Yayoi in the other. Ginoza tried multiple times to leave the room, but Kagari took on the act of being his lover. Masaoka had a blast being judge, saying the population problem would be solved soon with so many homosexual pairings. He dared each pair to humiliating acts.

"One person from each pair, pretend to seduce your partner!"

Shion instantly put her arm around Yayoi and began some sexy pick-up lines, making Yayoi blush markedly. Ginoza tried to walk away but Kagari grabbed his hand. Trying not to laugh, he said with a wink, "Honey, all you need is a drink, plus the company of your young, hot, man-date!"

Masaoka roared with laughter. "Don't look like you're dying, Ginoza—it's just three rounds. Kagari wins this one. Shion and the Ice Princess, drink! There. Alright then, one person of each pair, give a romantic speech to your partner!"

Kagari got down on one knee and took Ginoza's hand again. "Inspector Ginoza," he said intensely, "no, Nobuchika. You always act cold, but I can tell you love me. And from the first moment I saw your stony face and evil eyes, I knew there was nobody else in the world for me. Your arrogance is only a cover for your cute inner gay man!"

Ginoza kicked him. "Why are you making me play this game?!"

Yayoi decided it was her time to step up for the team. She remembered an act she and Rina used to play, and she was just drunk enough to make it work. "Oh gypsy-girl from a foreign land," Yayoi said in a manly, courtly voice, "I found you singing by the river and became bewitched. You wander because you have no home, but, my sweet lady, do not wander alone! I shall serve as your knight and together we shall find a place to be at peace!"

"Kagari drinks!" Masaoka laughed. "Yayoi, I didn't know you could act like that! It was really something, haha! Ok, final round. This one will put you both out of the game and we'll all drink together! Couples, I want to see you kiss each other!"

Ginoza stormed out of the room, leaving Kagari rolling on the floor with laughter.

Yayoi thought the game was finally over, but before she knew it, Shion leaned forward and kissed her lips. Yayoi froze in surprise. How much had Shion drunk? She found herself pushed backward against the wall, and Shion seized hold of her shoulders and kept kissing her. Finally she broke away, leaving Yayoi breathless, and then she turned and seductively winked at the men.

"What?" Shion said in response to their stunned silence. "Guys like to see girls doing it, right? Gentlemen, I just gave you a treat. Be grateful. I believe this means I win the game."

For the next few days, all Yayoi could think about was the party. Had Shion kissed her only for the sake of the game, or was there really something there? After a week she could wait no more. She invited Shion to her room, bringing an ashtray so the woman could smoke freely. After mustering up the courage, Yayoi decided to be as honest as possible.

"Shion," she began, "why did you kiss me last week? Do you perhaps… do you feel the same way I feel about you? You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met. Would you… would you like to maybe go out together somewhere? Or… can we spend some time talking, at least?"

Exhaling smoke, Shion closed her eyes somewhat grimly. "I'm sorry for kissing you, Yayoi. I thought it would be my birthday gift to you, but it was a cruel thing to do. Look, dear, I just don't think of you that way. I'm four years older than you, and you're just finding out about the world. It won't work. I'm sorry, Yayoi."

The golden-haired woman stood up and left. Yayoi had never felt so utterly rejected before. When she was alone, she crawled under her blankets and cried quietly.

***Break***

A few months later, Yayoi woke up from a nightmare and immediately sought out a knife. In the dream, she had been placed in an iron cage, quickly sinking into a river. She saw standing on the shore her mother, her father, Rina, and Shion. She cried for help, but nobody on the river bank even looked at her. One by one they walked away, leaving Yayoi to die in the cage. This dream reminded the young woman of all the pains of her past. Such nightmares filled Yayoi with sorrow and then rage, but her pride prevented her from crying, from screaming.

The only thing to do with such intense emotions, Yayoi thought, was to release them by cutting herself and feeling the blood rivulets slide down her arm. A small forest of slit-scars decorated Yayoi's left shoulder, and far below that, several horizontal scars rested on her wrist.

"I know this isn't right," she whispered through soft sobs, "but I don't know what else to do. And right now, I don't care. I just want to feel relief."

Usually Yayoi cut with caution, but this time she did it while crying and half-asleep. Her right hand, which had been trembling, applied too much force; the new cut on her upper left arm looked much deeper than any other slits Yayoi had made. First she felt a pang of fear—damn! She screwed it up and went too far!—but calmed down when she realized it was too shallow to reach any veins, and the rate of blood loss seemed fairly slow. Yayoi continued to feel bothered by something, though… of course! The width! The wound seemed wide enough, Yayoi thought, that the risk of infection would be high. The new cut needed a few stitches.

Yayoi put on a sleeveless nightgown, covered her cut with a rag, and quickly stole out of her room. She reached Shion's room in only seconds and tried to open it, but the door was locked. Then came a noise from inside. The door swung open and an extremely grumpy Shion stood there in a red bathrobe. At first it looked like she might yell at Yayoi, but then she saw the cut. Shion pulled Yayoi into the room and instantly began digging around in her desk for supplies.

"So you heard the rumor, eh?" Shion asked, to break the silence. "That I used to be a doc?" Her head was bowed as she dug through supplies, kneeling in front of her desk, bathrobe slipping a little off her shoulders.

"Yes," Yayoi nodded breathlessly; "Kagari mentioned you had a physician license. It's true, right?" She sat on Shion's bed, pressing her cut with the clean rag. "Look, I really screwed up," she admitted, "and I'm really sorry to bother you. But just this once, could you help me? I think I stopped the bleeding for now. But this cut needs—"

Shion brought over a tray of instruments, pushed Yayoi so she was lying down, slid a clean white towel under Yayoi's arm, and began to prepare the needle.

"—Stiches," Yayoi finished. "Wait, really? You can stitch it up right here?"

"Sure," Shion replied, applying alcohol and then a local anesthetic to the cut and the area around it. "It's no big deal as long as we keep everything sterile. This isn't risky or difficult for a real doctor to fix at all. Don't ever try it yourself, though. Is your arm numb yet?"

"Almost," said Yayoi, trying not to feel awkward lying on the bed with Shion so close to her and so serious. "The burn of the alcohol started to go away as soon as you used that numbing stuff. It's really fast, then. And you don't need to inject it? Medicine has really changed."/span/p

"It has, I guess. Now, close your eyes for five minutes. If you feel pain, I'll use an injection."

The process only took about five or six minutes. Yayoi stared into the darkness of her closed eyelids, lying on the bed, knowing that Shion was sewing her skin. For the life of her, she couldn't think of what to say. She thought that Shion must hate her now. Then Shion's nonchalant voice told her to open her eyes. The room seemed brighter, and Yayoi felt entranced looking at the former physician. She bandaged Yayoi's arm swiftly and securely. Finally she said,

"Four stitches for you, Miss Drama. I'll tell you how to take care of them… but first I need to tell you something. I might have made a mistake. No, not with the stitches! With you."

"What do you mean?" Yayoi asked, confused.

As she spoke, Shion threw her gloves away and sterilized her instruments. Her voice remained steady, only showing slight emotion rarely.

"My Crime Coefficient is 130, and normally yours is around 118. I had a scanner installed in my door just for kicks, but when you came into the room, your number read as 200. I've seen one other case like this—when overcome with emotion, your Psycho-Pass can rise drastically, only to return to your normal level after a day or so. Right?"

Yayoi bowed her head, afraid of what was coming next. "Yes," she replied quietly. "Are you saying I'm too dangerous for you to be around?"

"Trust me, you've got it exactly backwards, dear. Sit up, let me explain. When I said I couldn't think of you romantically, I was lying. I actually think you're a beautiful young woman and you a lot about life already. But to be honest, I was afraid of making your Psycho-Pass worse. You still try to keep your Crime Coefficient low, and I've always thought that admirable. I thought I might "taint" you with my 130 number. Relationships within work would be breaking the rules, too. And there's more. I dislike the Sybil System, I dislike the MWPSB, I'm always smoking, and sometimes I'm just a bitch. I didn't want to expose you to all that."

Hope appeared in Yayoi's mind again. Impulsively, she hugged Shion. "You were worried for nothing," she said, clinging to Shion's curvy body and soft bathrobe. "But now you've seen the truth. If anything, I might accidentally "taint" you when my Crime Coefficient fluctuates."

Smiling, Shion put an arm around Yayoi's shoulders, and with her other hand she stroked Yayoi's hair, once again long and free of ties. "What about the other things I mentioned, though?" the woman asked. "I really do complain all the freaking time, and I'm not a doormat worshiper of Sybil."

Yayoi loved feeling Shion stroking her hair. She smiled. "I used to date an anarchist, remember? As long as you don't plan on turning into one of those types, there's nothing wrong with complaining about the MWPSB or Sybil. I don't care about breaking simple work rules either. We could keep it a secret. So… do you want to try… being my girlfriend?"

Again surprising the younger woman, Shion leaned in and stole a quick but heated kiss. "I would love to try things out with you," she stated, "on one condition. Spend the night here in my room. Let's see if we can't have a little fun before we go back to sleeping. Know what I mean?"

The other young woman nodded, but her blue eyes looked unsure. "It's been a while," she admitted. "Rina's the only other person I've… done this with… and I was in Isolation for two years."

Shion took off her bathrobe, showing a truly gorgeous body. She joined Yayoi on the bed, and gently lowered herself on top of the tall, black-haired beauty. "Don't worry," she said with a kind smile. "We'll go slowly. I'll treat you well. We've got to be careful regardless with your arm like this."

That night marked the beginning of Yayoi's secret relationship with Shion. Most of the other members of Division One figured it out, of course, but nobody tried to break them apart. Kagari would tease a lot, but it was clear he and the rest of Division One—except maybe Ginoza—supported the relationship.

***Break***

Just as Yayoi turned 24 and autumn rolled in, Division One finally received a new Inspector. Akane Tsunemori was a tiny, innocent-looking girl with short brown hair. She had only just turned twenty over the summer. Yayoi thought at first that Akane would fail as an Inspector, but the new girl turned out capable and strong. No matter what new crimes and conditions she was exposed to during her first year at the MWPSB, Akane managed to keep her Psycho-Pass healthy. For that reason, Yayoi envisioned the new Inspector almost as a role model. /span/p

"You and Shion aren't the new item anymore," Kagari said to Yayoi one day, grinning. "So far this year we've stopped like five or six major criminals, and it's mostly thanks to Akane working together with Kogami. Sure there's a big age gap, but wouldn't they be cute together? I'm pretty sure I can tell Akane-chan has some kind of crush on our hound dog Kogami."

"I doubt Akane-san would get together with someone who could drastically change her," Yayoi said doubtfully. "But you never know. I just hope our investigations continue to go well."

The next key event in Yayoi's life proved much harder to take than working under a new Inspector. In the spring, she received a letter from her father Morihiro with the news that her mother Maria had been executed. Her Crime Coefficient had continued to rise as she stayed in Isolation. She caused far more trouble than Yayoi ever had in confinement, and her number finally reached 300. Apparently, Mrs. Kunizuka's dying wish was to see her daughter one more time, but she had no way of contacting Yayoi, so she died in despair. Needless to say, Yayoi felt incredibly guilty hearing this news. She wondered if it was partly her fault. If she had kept visiting her mother, maybe she could have helped, and maybe Maria would not have ended up dead.

"Around the same time, Kogami and Akane managed to track down Shogo Makishima, the criminal mastermind who had played a hand in Sasayama's death and many other crimes. Akane's close friend Yuki was taken hostage, and for some reason the Dominator read Makishima's Crime Coefficient as zero! Unable to shoot or attack Makishima, Akane was forced to watch the mysterious criminal kill Yuki in front of her own eyes. Akane's Psycho-Pass would return to her normal levels (around 40 Crime Coefficient) relatively soon, but first she experienced a few days of deep mourning, making her almost nonfunctional at work.

When Yayoi heard what happened, she decided to try to do something to help. She saw Akane sitting alone by the vending machine and small lounge by the tenth story balcony. Yayoi bought a can of coffee for herself and a strawberry lemonade for Akane. She forced the bottle in Akane's hands and sat beside her on the ever stiff black couch.

"Thank you," said Akane politely. "It's nice that everybody wants to cheer me up."

"I know I don't usually talk much," Yayoi said in her impassive voice, "but I wanted you to know I can somewhat empathize. I've never seen a friend die right in front of me, but I've had loved ones suddenly leave my life, and my mother just died recently. Times like this, the most important thing is to let yourself grieve, and keep going to therapy. If you start bottling things up, it's bad news."

Akane nodded. "I think I can move through this grief in a healthy way," she said in a low, soft voice. "I know there are multiple stages of grief, and anger and sadness are just pieces of it to accept and live with. I try to accept all my feelings as valid, but only act on the ones that are effective and reasonable. But the hardest thing for me is accepting this sense of guilt." Her large brown eyes teared up. "I'm glad you came long, Kunizuka-san. I was starting to wonder… just wonder… what it would be like to jump from that balcony out there. I'm sorry," she stammered quickly; "I'm getting too emotional."

"No, I'm glad you said something." Yayoi awkwardly put one arm around Akane's thin shoulders, thinking she might need the comfort of simple touch. "I've tried to kill myself before, you know. Death may sound like an easy escape, but thinking that way will definitely raise your Crime Coefficient. Since suicide causes Area Stress Levels to rise, it's a crime to try to kill yourself. Are the suicidal feelings really serious, or—"

"No," Akane shook her head, trying to smile. "They're just passing thoughts. I know better than to let them get to me. I have this strange ability… I seem to be able to come to terms with any trauma and never rise above an 80 Crime Coefficient. Still, I haven't been able to come to terms with my guilt yet. It was my fault… that Yuki was murdered. When the Dominator wouldn't work, Makishima gave me a chance to shoot him with a real, old-fashioned rifle. But I couldn't shoot. So it really is my fault."

"I think you're wrong," replied Yayoi soberly. "We all know now that Makishima exists and that he's a homicidal maniac. He already knew you couldn't shoot him in your state. Even if you did shoot, he probably intended you to shoot Yuki by mistake so you would feel even worse. He would have killed her even if you had been able to shoot. So it's not your fault."

"How can you be so sure?" Akane asked doubtfully.

"Because in reality," Yayoi replied, surprising herself with her confidence, "everything is everyone's fault. No one person is ever entirely responsible for a tragedy. Thinking about who is to blame is ultimately useless. I know because I've been feeling so guilty over my mom's death. She was executed. I think that I may have been able to prevent that if I had visited her in confinement. In the end, though, that's only speculation. Many factors contributed to my mother's death. Even if I myself were a major factor, I'm still not entirely to blame."

"You can be a very logical person sometimes." Akane had wiped off her face and started sipping on the juice; she already looked ten times better than before. "I hadn't thought of things that way till you told me. I'm sure I'm still feel guilty for a while, but now I know I can move through it eventually. Like I said earlier, my mind stays strangely stable for some reason. My therapist said it's a miracle I don't have signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."

"I think that's what Kogami is suffering with," Yayoi said gloomily.

"Oh? Are you very familiar with psychological issues?" Akane inquired curiously.

"I only know what I know because I have a mental illness too. It's called Dyslimbia. But don't tell anyone that, if you please. My mind isn't like yours. The limbic system has to do with emotion regulation, and Dyslimbia messes that up. Akane, you feel deep emotions, but you move past them fairly easily once you've heard and accepted reason and logic. Kogami feels less emotion and has no trouble keeping his head, except when it comes to the one event that traumatized him, the brutal murder of his closest friend. He isn't able to turn off the emotions that stem from that trauma. And as for me, I can't turn off my emotions at all. Simply knowing something is illogical or unreasonable isn't enough to stop me from being stupid. I guess that's why I'm an Enforcer and you're an Inspector."

Finishing her juice, Akane stood up and bowed her head to Yayoi in thanks. "Kunizaki-san, you're not stupid. You're just a little reckless. I believe someone as strong as you can live a happy life even if you have to live with Dyslimbia. Thank you for talking with me and comforting me. You really have helped more than you know."

Yayoi nodded and continued sipping on her coffee as Akane retreated down the hall to return to work. Presently, she shook her head.

"Kunizaki-san," Yayoi scoffed. "Damn, she ALMOST had my name right that time. Not that I really care what she calls me." She smiled and leaned back against the couch. "Shion knows my name, and that's all that matters."


	6. The Sybil System

6: The Sybil System

The year rolled into 2113, and the Makishima case became uglier and uglier. After the appearance of the helmets, which Makishima spread among the people of the city, the "case" turned into a citywide crisis. The helmets allowed criminals to commit violent crime without becoming targets of the Dominators. The criminal's real Psycho-Pass was disguised, and the helmet copied the Psycho-Pass of the person with the lowest Crime Coefficient in range. First, criminals killed innocent citizens or each other. Next, many of the "innocent citizens" began to kill criminals—or rather, anyone with a helmet. Soon both "sides" had acquired helmets and dozens of riots started all over the city. People blindly massacred each other, each one trying to ensure only his own life.

The Chief of the CID under the MWPSB sent out a call to the military border drones. Until that backup arrived, the Chief told all the Inspectors, they would have to do their best to suppress the riots with nonlethal weapons such as stun batons and electromagnetic pulse grenades. Nearly every Division of Inspectors was continually deployed to stop riots. By the time Kogami realized the riots might be a diversion, Makishima and his partner Gu-sung Choe were already driving headlong towards the now unprotected Nona Tower, base of MWPSB operations.

Yayoi worked hard on every mission that night, suppressing riots and trying to cause as few casualties as possible. She would find out nothing about the capture of Makishima or the "disappearance" of Kagari until early the next morning. In the meantime, Yayoi, Masaoka, and Ginoza made a great team. When the riots formed a crowds, Yayoi would sneak close to them and throw the EMP grenade, which would surprise them and disable their helmets. Then Ginoza and Masaoka took down most of the people with the Dominators. All three were armed with stun batons too, to stop any wild fleeing of the crowds. Now and then, they ran into someone over 300, and Yayoi was grateful that Masaoka usually spotted and killed the criminal first.

Around sunrise, the rioting finally started to quiet down, and Yayoi got the call telling her that Akane and Kogami had captured Makishima, but Kagari had gone missing. Most likely, Ginoza said, he had run away from the MWPSB and was now a criminal on the loose. Yayoi couldn't believe that for an instant. While Kagari had often complained about not being able to go anywhere without an Inspector, he had been happy, overall, as part of Division One. He couldn't have just run away! Yayoi realized too late what an amazing friend he had been, and her mind echoed with words she should have said to him. Now, she might never have the chance.

"Tell me the truth," Yayoi said to Kogami when all of Division One had returned to their main lab in the Nona Tower. "You're the best detective on our team. For what reason would Kagari suddenly run away? Or was he killed and nobody wants to talk about it?"

"I don't buy the Chief's story, either," Kogami replied, weary but grim. "It's awfully opportune that SHE supposedly found his 'abandoned' Dominator, and no witnesses saw him anywhere near the Tower except when he went in with us. Shion says the Cameras that should have showed Kagari fleeing are conveniently broken. No, Kagari didn't run away. He saw or heard something the Chief didn't want him to see or hear, and she killed him."

This statement caused Ginoza to start fighting with Kogami, with Akane and Masaoka arguing their own viewpoints in the background. Shion groaned in annoyance, left the monitors, and said she was going to get some sleep. Yayoi retreated to her room and locked the door as tears of anger and hurt filled her blue eyes. She believed Kogami. She knew in her heart that Kagari was dead and nothing could be done about it.

Suddenly, Yayoi remembered that she had exchanged a few text messages with Kagari during the course of the night. Would there be any clue there about what happened to him? Most of the conversation was normal—but the last message had been sent incomplete. (Kagari had actually sent it just before the Cyborg Chief shot him and destroyed his phone along with him.) Yayoi read it in confusion and astonishment. The text said, "Sybil lives in the tower. It's a bio computer made of br…" and nothing more was clear. Yayoi wondered if she should show anyone the message. She ended up falling asleep while she turned the matter over and over in her head.

***Break***

At first, Yayoi held off talking to anyone about the message. She wanted to tell Kogami, but after Makishima escaped the Chief, Kogami ran away. He had gone to try to kill Makishima, Akane told everyone a few days later. The rest of the Division was ordered to capture Makishima and keep him alive at all costs. Akane had suddenly started acting differently, as if she truly knew exactly what was going on and exactly what needed to be done. She seemed so grimly determined, in fact, that Yayoi decided to reveal Kagari's dying message to her.

The two young women sat inside Yayoi's room drinking a couple of hot coffees to prepare for the long day ahead. Yayoi explained that she had a dying message from Kagari, but could not understand it. She added that she had not told anybody yet because she had been unsure of the consequences. The message seemed to be about important, after all. Yayoi read it to Akane.

"Erase that message and all records of it immediately," ordered Akane, standing up suddenly and pointing her Dominator at Yayoi. "If the Chief discovers you have this message, you'll be killed."

"You could have told me that without putting a gun in my face," Yayoi said drily. She deleted the text at once, confident that she would not forget a word of it. "There, it's gone. All I want to know is what it meant, and if it proves anything about Kagari's… death. I'd also like to know if you would put the Dominator away, since I pose absolutely no threat to you."

"I'm only holding this gun to make a point," Akane said in voice that sounded serious but not at all dangerous. "You see, if you speak a word about this to anyone but me, you will certainly be killed. That's not a threat; I could never kill you. But the Chief or someone else will. You can't even start a rumor about it on the Net, understand? They will trace it, track you down, and murder you. Naturally, this also means that anyone you share the secret with will also be found and killed. Now, do you still want to know the meaning of that message?"

Although she felt somewhat taken aback, Yayoi nodded. Akane put the Dominator away.

"That message proves that Kagari did not run away but was indeed killed," stated the young Inspector. "In all likelihood, the Chief killed him because, while chasing Makishima's partner, Kagari entered the room where Sybil's true form is visible. Yes, this is all about the Sybil system. It's not a supercomputer—not in the sense that we often think, anyway. It's a living system. What was the last word that got cut off when Kagari sent the message? Br? Can you think of anything that's alive AND as complex as a supercomputer?"

"Brains?" Yayoi gasped. "Human brains? But I'm not sure I understand."

Akane began to explain. "This sounds strange, but keep in mind I have personally seen Sybil's true form. We were told the Sybil System works because of parallel processors distributed by servers installed all over the city. We were told it uses the best processing technology as well the most adaptable processing, which is why Sybil can make adjustments to a person's threat level depending on the situation. But think about what Sybil can do: it can actively measure and adjust the Psycho-Pass of every citizen. That's just not possible for a single computer; there would need to be many of them connected into a system. Most people don't know this, but all of that system's computational processing happens at one location: the Nona Tower. Why would all the members of the system be stored in the same place?"

"If each processor in the system was a human brain," Yayoi answered slowly and skeptically, "people would have to keep them all alive and neurally connected. With current technology, that could only be possible if the brains are kept close together."

"And since you're good with computers and things," continued Akane, "you should notice there's something else 'off.' It's impossible for even the best computer systems to have the kind of processing capacity that Sybil does. It should be beyond our technology. However, the human brain far surpasses computer processing. Isn't that right?"

Nodding, Yayoi said, "I read about it when I studied drones. People are always trying to find ways to make artificial intelligence possible. But a famous study from five years ago said it took something like 40,000 processors just to simulate one second of brain activity. So the System really must be made of brains… of minds that are still alive but devoting all their power to processing. I could have figured this out myself if I'd really studied the problem. But everybody acts like Sybil is some kind of computer, so it never crossed my mind to consider biology. Still…" Yayoi still felt confused. "Why is this such a big secret that people are killed for stumbling on it? Oh, wait…"

"Have you realized it yet?" Akane wanted to give a bitter laugh to express herself, but any kind of laughter had been impossible for her ever since Kogami ran away. "Even though the brains are connected neurally," she said firmly, "allowing them to almost function as one being, they are ultimately still subject to human biases. The Sybil System is basically a Dictatorship. Decisions are made by human minds and not by unbiased processors. Japan tries to believe it's still a Democracy, even though foreign politicians have accused us since the 2080s of being fascist. We all believed that the Sybil System was better than a Dictatorship because law and order were controlled by unbiased processors. The whole country would fall apart if people found out that Sybil is imperfect."

Yayoi felt like her head was swimming. She hadn't realized it until that very moment: the extent to which she had unconsciously trusted the Sybil System. Thoughts came to her mind like, "Does the System really help people?" and "Was Rina correct all along?" Yayoi tried to silence those thoughts, because it wasn't an Enforcer's job to care about fair treatment, and because logically she could see the necessity of the System at this point in history. If the idealistic Akane had been personally shown the Sybil System, it could only mean that the young Inspector would try to improve the System from within. That had to be the most logical option. On the other hand…

"What's wrong?" Akane asked.

"If Sybil is made of human minds," Yayoi replied, "which all have wills of their own, how can anyone change the System? Appealing to them personally is like appealing to a dictator; there's no guarantee Sybil actually believes in fairness, or that it will accept feedback from outside minds."

"You're absolutely right," the young Inspector said, surprising Yayoi with her understanding and maturity, "but what's the other option? To go down the road of revolution? At least a thousand people died during the helmet crimes and citizen riots. Many more were injured. All this was set into motion by a single clever criminal. Can you imagine how many lives would be lost if the country broke into war, with generals commanding entire armies? There's no guarantee Japan can remain self-sustaining, either, if we had some kind of civil war. I don't know what your motivation might be, Kunizaki-san, but mine is to save lives. Although this may sound difficult for an Enforcer to believe, Sybil saves more lives than it takes. Right now, the best way to save lives is to work within the System, trying to bring about a world of fairness and justice slowly."

"Yes, I agree," Yayoi said, but in reality she felt uncertain. "Regardless, I have no intention of becoming some suicidal anarchist. I will continue to follow your orders as always, Inspector. As for Sybil, the secret is safe with me."

***Break***

The Makishima case finally ended with the death of the madman, but victory came at a great cost. The oldest member of Division One, Masaoka, had been killed. Anyone who didn't know the secret already soon heard that Masaoka had been Inspector Ginoza's father. Having watched his father die before his eyes, Ginoza's Crime Coefficient rose to 140, and he was demoted to the role of Enforcer. As for Kogami, he appeared briefly in a race with Akane to reach Makishima. After shooting Makishima in the head in cold blood, Kogami ran away again, much to the disappointment of Inspector Tsunemori.

As much as possible, Yayoi tried to comfort Akane, but it caused her relive the pain of losing Rina in a similar way. Although the two had not been lovers, it seemed Akane had truly admired Kogami. With him gone, she became a different person. She undertook an intense therapy program to keep her Crime Coefficient at normal levels. When she returned to work, the young Inspector seemed a little older, a little quieter, and a little gloomier than before. However, not all the changes in her were negative. Akane became even more cool-headed, even more determined to fight for justice, and much less naive than she had seemed before. Yayoi wondered if the same thing had happened to _her_ after Rina escaped from Club 27.

"I've been thinking about Rina a lot lately," Yayoi confessed to Shion while the two of them lay under the covers of Shion's bed. "It's not like I would ever want to date Rina again. You, Shion, have been a far better friend and lover. But there are questions I never got to ask Rina. I can't tell if I hate her or if a part of me still loves her. I never understood why she suddenly became so extremist."

"Tut tut," said Shion, ruffling Yayoi's hair. "You're thinking of another girl when you've just had a wonderfully romantic night with your girlfriend." She laughed. "I'm kidding. I know things work this way. Once you've really been in love with someone, you can rarely say that you've moved on forever or that you won't think of that person again. Nevertheless, you probably won't be able to find closure regarding your past relationship. Eventually, you have to accept it, like an unsolved case."

"What if I COULD find closure?" Yayoi asked, with one arm pillowing Shion's neck. "I think if I talked to Rina, I might be able to move on. I just want to understand why she ended up that way."

While Shion playfully moved her fingers up and down Yayoi's thin body, she said, "Listen. If simply talking to your ex would answer your questions and let you move on, I might be able to help. I'm the communications technician and analyst, and a lot of other data comes my way as well. I've also 'broken in' so that I can read the majority CID's criminal case records without Inspector supervision. All that to say, it's risky, but I could start a secret search for Rina."

"Would you really?" Yayoi exclaimed, hugging Shion's head and bringing it to rest on her soft, surprisingly full chest. "I'll help however I can. And another thing—after I've talked to Rina, I have absolutely no problem with arresting her. Normally, Enforcers might get in trouble if they started working on a case without Inspector approval, but I doubt Tsunemori would hold it against us if we ended up finally catching Rina and her anarchist group."

"Alright then," chuckled Shion. "Secret Investigation of Rina Takizaki, code name RT, is now underway! But please DO stop talking about your ex now. We have an entire hour before we have to show up in the main lab for work." Shion kissed her lover's chest. "I think we can have more fun for half an hour or so before we get dressed and get our coffee. What do you say?"

Yayoi's only answer was to roll on top on Shion and start kissing her.

***Break***

The secret investigation to find Rina moved along very slowly. Keeping all the evidence from Akane's eyes proved quite difficult. On the other hand, time seemed to elapse much faster the older Yayoi became. 2113 passed in a blur. The investigation continued through the summer, but any leads about anarchist groups they followed up on turned into dead ends. Anarchist groups were on the rise, and they had gotten better at covering their tracks.

In the fall, Shion was able to track down a band called Prophecy by tracing their sales on the Net. Yayoi submitted a report to Akane telling her that an unauthorized band linked to anarchists had been located. However, when the team went to investigate, nobody found any sign of Rina Takizaki. The rest of the band members were not targets for Enforcement action; they were not criminals but copycats. They had no idea who or where Rina might be, and finally they were all sent to a therapy program. Yayoi turned 25 without much celebration.

In the winter and spring of 2114, numerous but small terrorist attacks occurred and were attributed to various anarchist groups. Yayoi brought many of these cases to Akane's attention, but none of the groups they caught had any connection to Rina Takizaki. Sometimes, Yayoi would give up for a while thinking that Rina must be dead. Eventually, though, she would bring it up again, and Shion let their investigation continue. More than anything else, Yayoi wanted to ask Rina why she chose to fight against Sybil, and if she now regretted it. Secondly, Yayoi wanted to be the one to arrest Rina, so she became determined to find the elusive anarchist before any of the other Divisions caught her.

"Don't you think we should end this investigation?" Shion asked wearily one summer night.

She and Yayoi stood on the tenth floor balcony where Akane often wondered in the daytime. By now, though, the Inspector was probably asleep. Knowing this, Shion had made a pair of margaritas and mischievously snuck them onto the wide, broad balcony with Yayoi. Now the women held hands as they talked.

"Wanting closure isn't a bad thing," Shion stated. "Wanting to catch a group of criminals isn't bad either, since we're Enforcers. But maybe you're obsessing over this investigation too much, Yayoi. The last time you saw Rina was almost five years ago. You should be able to move past it by now. Start thinking about what you want with your life. Even as Enforcers, we still have some options for trying to live happily."

"Well my mind doesn't work like yours," Yayoi said a little snappishly. "You can control your emotions. You move past intense emotions almost without trying. I can't do that. I'm eaten alive with hatred, because I can't forgive anybody who deceives and abandons me. You know, it's her fault that I was placed in Isolation for two years. But still… there IS more to it than simply wanting to arrest Rina, or making her admit she was wrong."

Shion took a sip of her margarita and asked, "What is it then?"

"It's about the Sybil System," replied Yayoi, downing the rest of her margarita and opening a beer can. "I heard some interesting things about it after Kagari died. I know Sybil runs things the wrong way sometimes, but I want to hear Rina's reason for choosing to fight. She could have tried to change the System from within. Fighting will only lead to more and more death. It will make Japan weaker, too. So I want to know why she would do something as irrational as joining the anarchists."

"You want to hear the perspective of radicals?" asked Shion, standing by the railing and looking out among the city's beautiful lights. "You probably want to know because you empathize with the extremists at least somewhat, right? You'll never be boring, my dear Yayoi. Honestly, though, you can ask any anarchist. They're all the same. Even if you get them to agree that Sybil saves more lives than it takes, they will say life is worthless if people are not allowed a life of freedom. That or they're just suicidal bastards fighting for the hell of it."

"Either way, I need to hear Rina tell me in her own words," Yayoi stated. "Also, having the investigation ongoing makes me feel like my everyday life has more direction. But I won't let the case take primacy over everything else in my life. I still give high priority to my work under Inspector Tsunemori. And my highest priority, Shion, is my relationship with you."

"In that case," said Shion, taking both of Yayoi's hands, "we'll continue the search for Rina's anarchist group." She kissed Yayoi tenderly. "But let's make one thing clear. You're mine, and I'm yours. You'll be turning 26 in September, just a few weeks away. I'm not sure exactly when, but sometime after your birthday, Yayoi, I will ask you to marry me."

Yayoi turned to her girlfriend suddenly, wondering if her words had been in jest. However, when she looked into Shion's amber eyes, reflecting a few of the city lights, she saw nothing but sincerity. Yayoi had no idea how she should feel. Her blue eyes were locked on Shion and she was temporarily speechless.

"Wait," Yayoi said at last, "Enforcers aren't allowed to marry."

"Not officially," Shion shrugged, "but we can do what we want with our love without some piece of paper to 'prove it.' With Akane's help, we may be able to change the rule of 'no romantic relationships between Enforcers'. At least that way we wouldn't have to keep our love secret anymore. And another thing: even Enforcers get some small amount of compensation in return for giving their lives to policing work. I've saved up some money. I'll buy two gorgeous, matching necklaces for us to wear instead of rings. When I offer that necklace to you, you'll know I'm asking to spend the rest of my life with you. In the meantime, you can start thinking it over."

Yayoi slipped down onto her knees, trying to hold back tears of joy. The persistent tears came regardless. Soon Yayoi was sobbing and clinging to Shion, who had knelt beside her.

"Shion, Shion, I love you so much," she managed to say through the tears. "I'm always so afraid of being abandoned again. But you… you want us together forever. Shion, I love you."

"Good," said Shion, holding her and kissing her head, "I was starting to think you were crying because you were upset. This goes without saying, but I love you too. I hope, when I ask, that you'll love me enough me enough to say yes."

Yayoi started to feel more hopeful about her life after that. She wanted to be with Shion forever. Plus, Shion said it was fine to continue trying to arrest Rina. Keeping up the secret investigation and the secret relationship, however, would become much more difficult that autumn, when a new Inspector finally arrived.


	7. The New Inspector

**7: The New Inspector**

During 2112, when Kogami and Akane were trying to prove the existence of the mastermind Makishima, Division One had briefly met Mika Shimotsuki. One of their cases happened within Osa Academy, a highly religious private school for girls; Shimotsuki and many of her friends had attended it. Makishima made a pawn out of a girl named Rikako, giving her plastination supplies so she could kill, plastinate, and mutilate victims. Rikako ended up dead, tossed aside by Maskishima, but before she died she had brutally murdered Shimotsuki's best friend. Yayoi spoke with Shimotsuki at the close of the case, trying to comfort her. Yayoi thought that was the last time she would see Mika Shimotsuki, but she ended up quite wrong.

Shimotsuki graduated soon after turning eighteen, took the Sybil Aptitude Test, and found that she was the only one out of a few hundred students with the aptitude for being an Inspector. She chose this occupation at once, since she had long since felt the desire to capture criminals like the one who murdered her best friend. Despite being only eighteen, Sybil allowed Shimotsuki to train as an Inspector because of the manpower shortage in the MWPSB. She underwent intensive training and completed it by the end of summer. Then Mika Shimotsuki started right work right away, in the autumn of 2114, as Division One's new Inspector. Around the same time, two new Enforcers were welcomed to the Division: the shy Hinakawa and the grim but professional Togane.

The new Enforcers right fit into the "family" of Division One, but the same did not hold true for Shimotsuki. With his bashfulness and his not-so-secret pill problem, Sho Hinakawa provided a lot of humor, if unintentionally. His skills with creating and analyzing 3d holographics proved highly useful. Togane participated with the group too, though he often stayed somewhat aloof. When it came down to tough cases, Togane could shoot to kill without a problem, so he proved a major asset. As for Shimotsuki, she acted far worse than Ginoza had during his time as Inspector. She was an ironclad follower of rules—in other words, she never allowed herself to have fun, nor would she let anyone else, if she could help it. Shimotsuki built a strong boundary between herself and the Enforcers, fearing them as latent criminals, refusing to see them outside of work, and treating them with scorn.

However, there was an exception to this rule. Inspector Shimotsuki seemed not to mind Yayoi at all, and she addressed her politely instead of scornfully. Perhaps the new Inspector admired Yayoi for having the lowest Crime Coefficient of the Enforcers, or perhaps she wanted to show her gratitude for the time when Yayoi had comforted her in high school. In addition, during one of her first missions, Shimotsuki was nearly killed, but saved by Yayoi. Outside of work, Shimotsuki respectfully called Yayoi "Kunizuka-san" (managing to remember the name correctly!) and she didn't mind when Yayoi called her "Mika-san." Before she knew it, Yayoi found herself trying to take on the role of "moderator" between Mika and the rest of Division One. A few times, the new Inspector even came to visit Yayoi in her living quarters.

"How do you people have the energy for all these cases on so little sleep?" Mika asked one day, sitting at the tea table in Yayoi's room.

Yayoi smiled, remembering the days when she had been eighteen and allowed to sleep for however long she so desired. Whenever she talked to Mika, Yayoi felt a little nostalgic and even a little envious. Although the changes were not strikingly obvious, the young woman had begun to experience some of the ups and downs of actual adulthood: less energy and passion, on the downside, but on the upside, she had the ability to think clearer and make informed decisions drawing from both knowledge and experience. Yayoi could not communicate such thoughts adequately, so she focused on the conversation at hand.

"We have some extra life in us," she told Mika, "because we let ourselves relax and try to have fun whenever possible. You might feel less strained, too, if you weren't always worried about doing everything 'by the book.'"

"You sound like my therapist," Mika sighed. "Maybe everybody is right and I SHOULD loosen up, but the thing is, I can't really help it. For all of middle school and high school, I was enrolled in those religious academies made to raise obedient brides. Osa Academy was especially strict. So are my parents. I grew up encouraged to think rigidly, so the habit might be impossible to break."

"It's too early to say that when you haven't really tried," Yayoi observed. "Talk to your therapist about this again. Ask what you can do to train your mind to think differently. It's extremely difficult, but it's possible. I've managed to keep my Crime Coefficient at 118 all these years by listening to therapists and trying to change my thoughts and perspectives."

"But doesn't it depress you that you can't make your number drop any lower?" inquired Mika.

"Sometimes it's a little depressing, yeah. I wonder how my life would have been if I were allowed to stay in society. But ultimately, I'm glad I became an Enforcer." Yayoi smiled genuinely. "If I had stayed 'normal', I never would have met Shion."

The rest of 2114 would be spent focusing on the Kamui investigation, which became so intense and disturbing that Yayoi and Shion decided to temporarily stop their secret search for Rina. Where their relationship was concerned, Shion made up her mind to wait until Christmas to ask Yayoi "the big question." In the meantime, they continued to get along well in secret. Major problems between them would not start until later.

***Break***

That year, Yayoi came to realize that she was actually a highly curious person, someone who always wanted to know the truth. Officially, she kept her nose out of detective business and acted as more of a "field worker"; unofficially, however, Yayoi kept stumbling upon gravely serious secrets. Those secrets, in turn, would drive her into starting a mad plan on her own. At first, however, she simply listened to the confidential information and did not act.

It began at the start of December. Mika Shimotsuki suddenly changed around the time when Akane began interrogating Masuzaki, the surgeon who had operated on Kamui many years ago. Becoming pale and unkempt, Mika looked to Yayoi like she was in a constant state of terror. She startled easily and seemed to be looking over her shoulder each time she showed up in the analysis lab. Her current mission, she told the Enforcers, must be kept confidential. The week after that, she began to skip days at work, and when she did actually attend, she was accompanied by Togane. Yayoi wondered if Togane had done something to psychologically cripple the young Inspector.

As the investigation continued to track the movements of the new enemy, Kamui, a seemingly unrelated tragedy occurred. The news of the murder of Akane's grandmother made everyone at the main lab figuratively wince—they all knew how precious the old lady had been to Akane. Watching the young Inspector return to work only a few days afterward was purely painful. Members of other Divisions murmured that she should be pulled off the case. Everyone worried over her Psycho-pass. Meanwhile, Akane attended as much therapy as possible while continuing enquiries concerning Kamui.

Akane started breaking into tears at the end of her second day. Yayoi quickly invited her to her room and, regardless of the rules, offered her a cold beer. As she calmed down, Akane accepted the small gift. The scent of Shion's cigarettes when she joined them and lit up vaguely reminded the Inspector of Kogami, whose memory soothed her. Akane took a large gulp of beer and then sat back, sniffling a little. With her small, petite body and the tears glimmering in her expressive brown eyes, she looked pitiful and oddly cute at the same time.

"Do you want one of us to walk you to the therapy unit?" asked Yayoi, her brow furrowed in concern.

"Once in a while," replied Akane weakly, "kicking back with friends is just as effective as a therapy session. I hope it's not a mistake… to think of you two as friends."

"I'm flattered," Shion said with her roguish smile, and Yayoi gave the Inspector a brief hug for her answer.

"All I can really think about right now is this Kamui case," Akane sniffed. "I'm trying not to fall into obsession. I'm trying to keep my hue clear… but it's more difficult than ever before."

"I can barely imagine," Yayoi said quietly. "But… if I may ask… what about the analysis to find out who did this to your grandmother?"

"The two aren't necessarily unrelated," replied the Inspector, her eyes gloomily fixed on the floor. "I think someone is trying to sabotage me. It could be Kamui, or it could be whichever of the large companies against which Kamui wants revenge. Both sides have motive to try to keep me quiet."

"So you don't think it was a random crime?" Yayoi inquired.

Akane shook her head grimly, but then, weakly, she attempted to smile. "I'm sorry," she said. "Right now I probably sound just like Kogami after Sasayama was killed. I'm probably not making sense."

"We would all do well to remember that Kogami's obsessive belief in Makishima was right all along," Shion observed. "And you're nearly as good of a Detective as he was, Inspector Tsunemori. I think you're correct in your belief that someone used this crime to try and sabotage you."

Yayoi glanced in surprise at Shion, where she sat smoking on the wide windowsill. Usually Shion worked on cases without arguing her own thoughts, and usually she disliked talking about cases after work ended. She must have made an exception just for Akane. Yayoi realized that she, too, wanted to help out Akane—why else would she put her own investigation on hold?

"This probably all happened because I stuck my nose too far," Akane sighed. "The sabotage could have happened because I finally found out the truth about Kamui from his old surgeon, Masuzaki. Don't tell anyone else this, but Kamui was made from the pieces of 184 bodies, and that includes sections of seven human brains. As a result, I don't think the Sybil System can read him as an individual. Like Sybil, Kamui is many in one. That's dangerous information. In addition, we know now that his goal is to shut down the Sibyl System."

"Why is that?" Yayoi asked, interested. She could never bring herself to fully support the System; she wanted to know the thoughts of others on the same page.

"If Sybil can't 'see' Kamui," explained Akane, "then it also cannot 'see' itself. An arbiter who cannot judge itself should not be allowed to judge others: that's what I think Kamui believes."

Yayoi found herself agreeing with Kamui's motive. This alarmed her at first, until she reminded herself this was just another result of having a 118 Crime Coefficient. On the one hand, if Kamui had killed Akane's grandmother, Yayoi wanted him dead. On the other hand, the criminal's thoughts reflected Yayoi's, and deep down she wanted him to succeed and incorporate change.

A few days after this conversation, Yayoi tried to take a moment to talk to Inspector Shimotsuki too. The secondary Inspector had not improved since last week; she was frightened of every little noise, and Togane stayed close by her side. Mika refused to talk and could not even look Yayoi in the eye. There seemed to be an air of frantic madness around her, evident in her trembling body and the flicking back and forth of her maroon eyes. Yayoi demanded to speak with Mika alone, but Togane still wouldn't back off.

"You're just an Enforcer, just like me," Yayoi snapped at the sizeable man, who she had never quite liked. "You have to do as you're told! Leave the Inspector alone and stop being a bully!"

"She may send me away whenever she likes," replied Togane with a rough smile. "She can even use the Dominator. Isn't that right, Inspector? Would you care to point that thing at me?"

"That—that won't be necessary," Shimotsuki said in an unsteady voice. "Togane-san, let me talk with Kunizuka alone, just briefly. I won't—I mean, you don't have to worry about it."

Togane smiled his peculiar, almost sinister smile again, inclining his dark-haired head slightly. "Take good care of our little Inspector, Kunizuka. I trust five minutes will be long enough."

Yayoi grabbed Mika's hand angrily and stormed down the hallway toward her living quarters. She pushed the young Inspector inside and slammed the door behind them. It was clear what was happening; something had weakened Shimotsuki's spirit enough to make her fall prey to the bullying of an Enforcer—and it was Togane, the one whose background was shrouded in mystery. Something terrible must have happened to Mika to break her will so utterly. Yayoi knew the poor girl would be scared to say much, so she pulled a notebook and pen from her black suit pocket and pressed them into Mika's hands.

"Write down what happened to you," the young woman ordered. "I can put two and two together, but you have to give me a clue."

Mika nodded slowly. She took the pen and shakily scribbled down a few notes. Then, to Yayoi's surprise, the Inspector threw the notebook across the room, ducked out the door, and ran.

Yayoi saw this action as childish. However, she reconsidered when she read the note.

"Togane is the Chief's son," Yayoi read silently. "Tell Akane to be careful of him! …And it's my fault that her grandmother died. All my fault…"

Yayoi seriously considered these statements and whether or not they were connected. She was forced to put aside her thoughts when she and the other Enforcers were suddenly called to duty after hearing about Kamui's attack on the subway. However, Yayoi managed to at least slip a warning to Akane: "be careful around Togane." She had no idea that such a small tip would give Akane such a large realization.

***Break***

Her own role turned out to be minimal, but Yayoi heard the details of Kamui's legacy from Akane a few days later. Technically, much of this information would be classified confidential, but Akane desperately needed to open up to someone. She explained how Kamui took the subway passengers hostage to get Sybil's attention. With the eye he stole from Shisui, the young criminal was able to use a Dominator. With this, he killed the Chief, Misako Togane, whose crime coefficient had been above 300.

"Then I led him to Sybil," Akane confessed. "I wanted to know the answer too. Even if he was a terrorist, Kamui's motives were pure and unprejudiced. I felt confident I could arrest him before he actually did any damage to the System."

"I think you did the right thing," stated Yayoi.

Akane smiled feebly and then continued to relate the events. Sybil found a way to calculate a judgement for itself, thus making Kamui a "visible" entity. The System removed and destroyed several of its brains to lower its Crime Coefficient to lawful levels. Akane then tried to arrest Kamui, but the two were confronted by Enforcer Togane.

"Togane had been the one trying to sabotage me, with the chief's help, I'm sure," Akane told Yayoi when the two of them ate dinner together a few nights after the ordeal. "In all likelihood, Togane was the one who killed my grandmother. Though I do find it strange he was able to commit the crime without using an Inspector to grant him access to the outside."

At that moment, as she ate and listened, Yayoi suddenly realized the truth about Mika. She had been the one to help Togane kill Akane's grandmother. Despite her inclination of affection toward Shimotsuki, Yayoi felt enraged that the girl would allow herself to be used in such a way. Still, she kept silent about it. Now was not the time to call Shimotsuki out as a traitor.

"Togane's plan to paint me black almost worked," Akane said grimly. "For a moment, yelling at him, I thought I had lost it. It was like I could feel my Psycho-Pass getting worse. Kamui calmed me. Without him, I might not be here. But then… he and Togane ended up shooting each other. Kamui probably died instantly. Togane was only wounded, but later confirmed dead by Inspector Shimotsuki. I'm very sorry it all had to end in such a way. Maybe, if I had been quicker…"

"Either way, Kamui would still have to be eliminated," Shion stated, slurping up her ramen. "Don't think you owe anything to a terrorist, my dear. In the end, Kamui broke the law as he saw fit. He caused many deaths. People like him will have to die so long as Sybil has control."

"But he also had an invaluable skill," Yayoi found herself arguing. "I mean the ability to improve someone's Psycho-Pass. That could have reduced suffering for thousands of people."

She quieted down after that miniature outburst. She knew she was letting all this get to her head. But the truth seemed obvious to Yayoi: the real villain had been the Togane family and not Kamui. Furthermore, Misako Togane had been part of Sybil, and the System only changed at the last second when confronted with a threat to its supremacy.

In the end, all the talk of the Kamui case caused Yayoi to despise the ruling System even more than before. The Kamui case also made one thing abundantly clear: the weakness of the Sybil System. If one knew its central location, then breaking through the security to harm the System would be relatively easy. Kamui had been the second person to almost breach the System, after Makishima. Could such a flawed and fragile System realistically hope to keep ruling Japan? Yayoi ruminated over it grimly.

***Break***

On Christmas Eve, Yayoi received a message that would change her life.

The rest of Division One was already partying in the shared kitchen and lounge; even the new Inspector Shimotsuki had come. Shion had donned a beautiful red gown and Yayoi secretly longed to watch her body move in it. First, however, she stayed true to her nickname of Ice Princess and used her tablet in her room. She would join the party later; first, she intended to work a little on her search for Rina. That was when she stumbled across the message in her email. The address said "unknown/unverified" which almost stopped Yayoi from opening the message… but the subject line read, "To Ya-Chan." Yayoi clicked on the message, her heart thundering.

It was from Rina.

 _"My Dear Ya-chan,_

 _Rumor in the underworld is that a certain Division of the MWPSB has started following up on leads about me. Do you want to see me that much? You haven't changed. If you wanted to find me, you should have tried my old email first, the one I used in high school. I'm not so difficult to track down, you know._

 _Now, let's see. You can only have one of two reasons for trying to hunt me. The first is that you're still bitter and you wish to bring me to justice. The other reason is that you've finally come to wonder if I've been right all along. That's it, right, Ya-chan?_

 _Another message will be sent from a different address and location in three days' time. It will contain the coordinates where you can find me. I only want to have a chat. Come talk to me, Ya-chan. If you bring backup, it'll be your loss. Use the next three days to think carefully._

 _Love,_

 _Rina Takizaki."_

The shock of receiving this hit Yayoi like a blast of cold air, making the hairs on her body stand on end. She became vaguely aware that she was dissociating again. The feelings of watching herself from outside, of reality's ambiguity, of her world crumbling—they overcame her. She sat staring at the message in frozen astonishment until suddenly Shion entered the room.

"Yayoi, don't be dull," she said, whirling in with a glass of red wine in one hand. "Come and join the party."

She draped her arms loosing around Yayoi's neck and shoulders, and her fingertips, under painted red nails, felt bizarrely warm.

Yayoi snapped out of her dreamlike state and closed down the tablet. She stood up and opened her mouth to try to speak, but Shion kissed her.

"My dear, you can't wear your suit to the party," Shion said, putting down the wine glass and running her hands over Yayoi's hips. "Wear your black dress. It's a special occasion."

"It…is?" Yayoi asked, lamely.

"Of course, silly."

Shion produced a beautiful necklace with a delicate chain of real silver, and an oblong pendant of turquoise with the letters S and Y set there in black. Her own matching necklace had the same letters on a pendant of deep ruby and gold-trimmed chain. She extended the necklace out to Yayoi, who stood, for the second time that evening, frozen in shock.

"Marry me, Yayoi," said Shion.


	8. Reunion

Yayoi stared at the necklace Shion held in front of her. Her first instinct was to accept it, but something felt wrong; she felt it like a weight in her stomach. Having just received a message from Rina, who she had been hunting for almost two years now, Yayoi was emotionally overwhelmed already. On top of that, Shion chose Christmas Eve to spring the proposal on her.

Quietly, Yayoi took hold of Shion's hands, which held the necklace out, and kissed both of them. Then she spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Shion, I love you and I want to spend my life with you. But there are still loose ends I need to tie up first. There's something I have to do in three days. It's about Rina. When it's over, I think I will be ready to accept your offer. Just give me a few days, please."

Disappointment and a little bit of hurt crossed Shion's face briefly, evident in the flick of her amber eyes and the brief quiver on her lower red lip. She silently slid the necklaces into a little black velvet box and closed the lid with a soft snap. Then she stepped forward so her body brushed against Yayoi's, and she wrapped her smooth, bare arms around her lover.

"I understand," she whispered. "I shouldn't have sprung it on you quite so suddenly. Let's give it a few more days, as you said. Yayoi, you look like something is really eating at you. What's this about Rina? Do you want to talk about it?"

Yayoi shook her head. She hugged Shion back and kissed the cleavage revealed by her rubicund gown, first on one soft breast and then on the other.

"I don't feel like talking about it," she said. "And you're here now, so I don't have to think about it. Let's go back to the party, Shion. I could use some good wine. Oh," she said, remembering. "Give me a minute and I'll change into my black dress."

In a moment, Yayoi changed clothes and added a little bit of makeup and perfume (a citrus scent that Shion seemed to enjoy). Her dress, which had ruffled short sleeves just covering the shoulders, fell an inch or two above the knees. The round neckline was slightly more modest than Shion's, but the fit was tight around her chest, drawing attention to it. Yayoi also wore blue bead bracelets to bring out her naturally cerulean eyes, and for once she put her long, black hair into a braid, leaving a few strands loose around her face. She looked like a tall, elegant beauty, despite her minor discomfort with wearing dresses. (When she did occasionally dress up, it was only to charm and amuse Shion.)

"You're drop-dead gorgeous, darling," Shion smiled, lifting Yayoi's chin up a little with her delicate hands. "No wonder you have an unstable Crime Coefficient," she joked; "I think it's simply criminal to be so gorgeous despite putting so little effort into it."

Yayoi answered with mock-offense, "I'll have you know that wearing dresses takes a hell of a lot of effort for me. Come on, you blond. Let's go join the party already."

The women walked out of the darkened living quarters and toward the noise and lights of the kitchen-lounge where everyone sat or stood eating, drinking, and laughing. When they entered the brightened room, Yayoi and Shion were holding hands for all to see.

***Break***

The next three days passed quickly. Yayoi waited anxiously for the next message from Rina. She had already made up her mind to go and talk to her ex. She needed answers. She needed to know what to do about her substantial distrust of the Sybil System; it seemed that talking to Rina was the only way to find the solution. At this point, Yayoi decided it would be bitter and childish to try to arrest Rina when she, herself, felt like the anarchists might be correct in their philosophy. Besides, if she brought a lot of backup, she might not get the chance to speak civilly with Rina at all.

Then the message came at last. There were no words from Rina; the note simply contained the city and coordinates where the meeting would take place. Yayoi found, not to her surprise, that the decided meeting place was that city park in Tokyo. She and Rina had played there so often in years gone by.

The only problem was how to get there. Yayoi couldn't leave Nona Tower without Enforcer supervision. At first, she thought she might get away with bringing Akane, but the more she considered, the more unlikely it seemed that the Inspector would allow Rina to continue running from the law. Asking Inspector Shimotsuki would be an even more laughable effort—or so Yayoi thought before her mind turned to darker ideas. There may be a way, after all. Yayoi felt that going to such measures would surely darken her Psycho-Pass. But at that point, she would have done anything to see Rina.

Yayoi approached Shimotsuki when they saw each other in the kitchen that weekend. The young Inspector had slowly returned to something close to her baseline state following Togane's death. She acted a bit less uptight these days and her excessive nervousness had almost vanished—but Yayoi could still see the light of terror in her maroon eyes when something caught Mika off guard. The two young women exchanged greetings and made small talk for a few moments. Then Yayoi shifted the discussion.

"So, what are you doing today?" she inquired casually, pouring some afternoon coffee for the both of them.

"I had a couple of therapy appointments," Mika answered, accepting the warm coffee cup into her small, pale hands. "But I'm finished already. Besides that, it's just a matter of going over this week's case files and finishing a report for the higher-ups. Oh, and I'm thinking about putting up a sign to remind myself and all the Enforcers to complete proper maintenance on our Dominators. What about you? What are you up to?"

"I would very much like to visit a certain park in central Tokyo," replied Yayoi without missing a beat. "Actually, I was wondering if you might come along."

"So suddenly?" Mika asked, unnerved. "I'm not sure if today—"

"It's important, Inspector—for both of us," Yayoi interrupted. Her blue eyes shone, cold and determined. "There's a certain person I have to meet. I know it's sudden, but all things considered, you really have no choice but to accompany me."

"What are you talking about?" Now Mika felt completely out of the loop. "And don't address me so demandingly. This isn't like you. Explain what's going on."

"It isn't like me?" repeated Yayoi, putting down her coffee and taking a few steps closer to the short Inspector. "Don't presume to know me, Inspector. You treat me better than the others, but in the end I'm just a latent criminal too. Which is why I'll say this." Her voice dropped to a forbidding whisper. "If you refuse to accompany me, I'll have no choice but to reveal to everyone your involvement in the murder of Akane's dear grandmother."

Shimotsuki's face changed at once. The confusion faded and was replaced first by a look of fear and then by a grimace of hostility. Something else, too, flickered in her deep reddish eyes and shook the stern curve of her mouth for a brief second. For that second, she looked hurt—betrayed.

"I don't understand why you're doing this," she said in a low, inimical tone. "The Yayoi I know wouldn't do this. Something is going on that you haven't told me. I suppose I'll find out sooner or later, since, as you said, I have no real choice but to go with you. Whatever your reasons, however, you should know this—I'm not some little girl. I'm an Inspector. I guarantee that there will be repercussions for threatening me, even if I don't yet know how to set them into motion. You would do well to remember—"

"What?" Yayoi snapped. "That you have a Dominator? If you put the Paralyzer on me I'll talk the moment the feeling returns to my tongue. I'll tell everyone the sin you have committed."

"Enforcer Kunizuka," Mika almost growled, "I know a thing or two about you as well. For example, I know that your Crime Coefficient can vary widely when you're experiencing stress. You're right—your face and name don't matter—you're just another latent criminal, after all. So I don't care if it's you or some other Enforcer. If your number rises to 300, justice will be swift, and you will die. If the person you're meeting has a dangerous Coefficient, I'll kill that person too."

"Well, now that you've made your holy stance clear," Yayoi bit back sarcastically, "shall we go for a little train ride? I'll handle the tickets. It won't take too long. All I ask if that you come along and don't bring any other Enforcers. You can give up on blabbering to Akane, too. She's the one who will resent you the most if I let something slip about you and Togane."

Mika downed her coffee and put a brave face on the situation. For now, she would accept things as they were, and accompany Yayoi to the park. However, she felt sure she would find some way out of this position once she had time and space to think it over. She vowed that Yayoi would pay for the insolent act of blackmailing.

Soon, both Inspector and Enforcer boarded one of the express trains bound for central Tokyo. They hid their Dominators under their coats and tried to seem relaxed so as to avoid alarming the public. Mika said nothing, keeping her face in a frustrated frown. Yayoi tried to ease her own guilt by reminding herself that this simply had to be her best option. Finally, disembarking the train, they arrived at the small city park.

There were only two hue scanners in the entire park, one at each entrance. A large playground for children stood in the center of the park, surrounded on all sides by clumps of trees and brush with walking trails and excellently cared for gardens of flowers and herbs. Around most of the little gardens were small stone or brick boundaries perfect for sitting on, and a couple of picnic tables dotted the sides of the paths here and there. The park was small overall. Though the well-kept gardens attracted plenty of people in the spring and summer, the park was almost entirely empty now at the end of December.

Yayoi guessed where Rina should be. She would wait at the most isolated garden, the one where the orange azaleas bloomed in warmer months, and where Rina and Yayoi had often gone to write songs for their guitars. Everything seemed so desolate now compared to those years in the past. Yayoi stopped at a picnic table and told Shimotsuki to stay there while she went just around the corner of the path to the place Rina would be waiting.

Sure enough, the singer and anarchist could be seen on the far edge of the garden beyond the now dormant shrubbery. She wore a long, blue-grey coat and hood—the hood was down, as if to say "Rina is not afraid of being seen." Her hair, which had grown a good five or six inches longer, was dyed black with streaks of blue here and there. Though Rina's appearance had changed in many ways, her expression, as Yayoi read it, remained much the same as before—cheerful but resolute, with fiery eyes announcing that she would stop for no one.

Yayoi slowly approached, staying silent. When she stood no more than a yard from Rina, she stopped. She could tell from her ex's smile that Rina would try to pounce on her with a bear hug.

"Don't bother jumping at me," Yayoi said rather coldly. "I'm only here to see what you have to say. No more, no less."

"You haven't changed much, have you?" asked Rina with a smile. "Behind the cool face, you're filled with emotions like bitterness and anger. Sit down on the stone border with me." Once the two were seated, Rina gave a small sigh and said, "Ok, Miss Public Safety Bureau, I'll cut to the chase. How do you feel about the Sybil System these days?"

"I believe I'm the one who should be asking questions," replied Yayoi. "You must be a latent criminal by now. Why would you join the anarchists when you know that the Sybil System is the only thing keeping our country safe? Where have you been? When did you change in such a way that you chose the anarchists over me? And why would you risk your life over some anarchist ideal? I've waited years to ask these things."

"The answer is simple," said Rina after a short pause. "I despise the Sybil System. I've hated it ever since it took my uncle away, the only man I ever looked up to. It's a tyrannical System based on fear, and it forces thousands—maybe millions—of people into corners. I'm talking about the treatment of so called Latent Criminals. You must hate Sybil too; after all, you've lost even more than me."

"I do hate it," Yayoi admitted in a low voice. "But I know that ultimately, more lives are saved with the System in place. I also know that I'm ultimately responsible for my life, and blaming the Sybil System isn't going to get me anywhere."

Rina stood up. "That's just what you've been taught to say!" she snapped. "How many years has it been since Sybil turned you into a number? It ripped away everything, even your pride and your name! Right now, you're just an unthinking piece of machinery for the System, which rules your fate with stats and numbers. But you were once a living person, and you once had a name. Have you forgotten it?"

Grabbing hold of Yayoi's shoulders, Rina shook her, and an urgent light shone in her hazelnut-brown eyes.

"Do you even remember what's happened to you?" she demanded. "You haven't done anything wrong. Just because the System said so, you were deemed a Latent Criminal and left in a place no better than jail for some of the best years of your young life! Your father never came to visit because of his obsession with Sybil. You only got out on the one condition that you would risk your life as a blood-hound for the police. That's no different than forcing you into slavery. Then, thanks to the System, your mother was executed! On top of that, you must have seen by now some of the absurdities and cruelties of Sybil that even I might not know."

Something in Rina's voice made Yayoi suddenly give thought to her words. On her own, she tried not to think much about the sad events of her life because they were so overwhelming. But the way Rina just summarized everything seemed to make perfect sense. Yayoi realized her life had been ripped away from her by one thing and one thing only: the Sybil System. She hated it.

"It's one thing to go with the system when there's no hope of overthrowing it," Rina continued. "But what if I told you that there's a real chance of us anarchists succeeding? There's a plan, and a good one. Only one thing has been stopping us."

Yayoi found herself highly curious. "What's been stopping you?" she asked.

Rina smiled. "We need an agent among the Enforcers."

"You're asking me to help you?"

"Exactly."

For a moment, Yayoi stayed silent. She was deep in thought, wondering if helping the anarchists was the right thing to do or not. It might make her Psycho-Pass rise beyond recovery. However, if they were indeed successful at overthrowing Sybil, Yayoi's Psycho-Pass would no longer matter. So she decided to hear out Rina's plan and judge whether or not it had a good chance of succeeding. Rina explained the plan as well as outlining the role Yayoi would play if she decided to help.

"It sounds risky," Yayoi said after hearing it out, "but you're right. It could just work."

"Then will you help us take down the system or not?" Rina questioned.

"I would be working against everyone in the Division," Yayoi thought aloud. "And I'd be risking my life. I'm close to finding happiness with Shion. If I help you, it might end up with me being shot by a Dominator or executed, and I wouldn't be able to live with Shion."

"Are you really going to be able to find happiness living under the Sybil System?" Rina countered. "Don't make me laugh. Think of how much happier you and Shion would be if you were free instead of living like dogs for the Bureau. There's one other thing I want you to know, too. Yayoi, my Crime Coefficient is now high enough to get me killed. It's because Sybil knows I'm the type to risk everything on a daring plan that might destroy the System. It has judged me as a danger to society who needs to be eliminated. You're our last chance, Yayoi. If you don't want to help me with the plan, then please go ahead and shoot me. Go ahead and kill me. I'll have no regrets." A tear fell from Rina's eye. "…Please… just go ahead and kill me."

Yayoi struggled for a moment and then made her decision.

"Rina, I couldn't kill you even if I wanted to," she stated. "Alright, I'll do it. I will help."

***Break***

A tiny tracking device had been hidden in Akane's jacket, planted by Yayoi. Now, she was recording the Inspector's movements from her tablet computer. Yayoi knew that Akane was sometimes called to the chamber where Sybil was located. All she had to do was wait until Akane went to that room again and record its location in the building. Then the first step of the plan would be complete.

A few days later, Akane went to the bottom level of the Nona Tower. From there she entered the basement, which was odd, because there should have been nothing in the basement. Then her signal disappeared on a landing near the entrance to the last floor of the basement.

"That's it," whispered Yayoi, recording the exact location. "That place must be the secret entrance to the lower levels not shown on the map. The signal vanished because the security blocks tracking devices. But it doesn't matter, as long as I know where the secret entrance is located."

The next day, she removed the tracking device from Akane's jacket and sent an email to Rina saying she was ready for the next stage of the plan. Two days later, the reply arrived. It said that the plan should be set into motion that night. Yayoi began to grow anxious as she waited.

Shion and Yayoi ate dinner together that evening. Neither could really cook, so they usually ate pre-prepared food. That night it was frozen pasta dinners. Shion opened a bottle of wine for them and they sat and ate at the tea table in Yayoi's room. Shion started talking about some wedding party ideas. Yayoi listened quietly, feeling guilty for working behind Shion's back on a secret anarchist plan. She said nothing as she ate.

"I can tell, you know," the blond diva smiled. "Either you're not feeling well, or there's something you don't want to talk to me about."

Shion knelt beside Yayoi, stroked her long hair, and kissed her softly.

"There," said Shion sharply. "That was it. When I was leaning in to kiss you, you diverted your eyes. Whenever you can't look me in the eyes before a kiss, I know something's up."

Everything in Yayoi wanted to talk. She wanted to burst into tears and say, "Shion, I'm risking my life tonight! I want a better future for us, and I think this is the right thing to do, but I'm so scared! And if I tell you what I'm doing, you'll only try to stop me." The desire to say those words was almost overpowering. Yayoi restrained herself with great effort. She resigned herself to being cold and insincere. Shion would have to live with it. If they could both just survive the night, everything would work out…

"There's nothing going on," Yayoi lied flatly. "I'm going to the bedroom to work on some case reports." She stood up. "I hope you don't mind if I use your tablet PC."

Shion covered her disappointment by enthusiastically pouring herself another glass of wine. "Go right ahead," she told Yayoi. "I can see you're not in the mood to spend time together. So, uh, don't mind me—I intend to get properly wasted with this Pinot Noir."

"Don't make yourself sick," Yayoi advised. Then she left the living area to retreat to the bedroom. Here, using Shion's personal computer, she would begin Rina's operation.


	9. More Than A Number

**9: More Than a Number**

Yayoi had always been a natural with computer technology. Her teenage internship on drone programming and development qualified her to work as the drone operator on the Enforcer team. Beyond robotics and complex programming, Yayoi also knew a fair bit about hacking. Most of this she had picked up from watching Shion. Tonight, while Shion drank herself silly in the next room, Yayoi would need her hacking skills. She needed to break into the Nona Tower Security.

Replacing real-time visuals with fake data on all the security cameras was a feat beyond Yayoi's skill level. Instead, she needed to disable the alarms that would go off in suspicious figures were seen wandering the corridors. In addition, the alarm over the basement secret entrance would need to be silenced. Third, Yayoi had to order all security drones to shut down for the night. Altogether, this meant hacking into three different systems.

On top of hacking into three systems, Yayoi also had to think about the human elements. Nona Tower had a force of six security guards who were to call for Inspectors or drone backup at the first sign of danger. Their main task was to monitor the video feed from the security cameras. As daunting as it sounded, however, the human element was easily taken care of. Yayoi had bought a bunch of strong sedative drugs from Enforcer Hinakawa and had mixed them into the icing over a batch of baked sweets. Yayoi gave these treats to the security guards just before she ate dinner, and by the time she left, they were already starting to nod off. The high dose of the drug should keep the men down until about sunrise, Yayoi estimated. That problem was solved. But the hacking problem remained.

The task would have been too overwhelming, except that the hardest parts could be done with information from Shion. Hundreds of passwords, codes, and clever tricks of the trade were stored on a small drive to which only Shion and Yayoi had access. Only they knew the drive's passcode. With this drive, plus the knowledge gained from Shion break into Nona security, Yayoi felt fairly confident about her mission.

She quickly hacked into the security mainframe and disabled all the tower's alarms for that night. She pulled out quickly, before the security bots detected her presence. It took considerably more effort to disable the special alarm systems around the basement's secret entrance. As expected, she could not begin to hope to actually open the door. She did all she could. By comparison, ordering all the drones to drones to shut down for the night was a simple task. At last, that too had been finished.

Shion kicked in the bedroom door and stumbled in, smelling of champagne as well as wine. She held the dark green-and-silver champagne bottle in her long, white hand. Her golden hair swished behind her, while the strap of her red dress slid down her shoulder.

"Look, I opened up the bubbly without you," said Shion in a splendidly drunken slur. "Are you jealous, _anata_? Oy, oy, oy! Pay some attention to me."

Yayoi stood up, leaving the PC tablet on the desk. She walked over to Shion until their faces were just a few inches apart. Raising her hand, Yayoi gently caressed the beautiful woman's soft cheek. Then with a "tsk" of mock-annoyance, she pushed her head backward, and Shion toppled right down into Yayoi's bed.

"Sleep off that booze," Yayoi said. "I'm going for a walk. If you haven't passed out from the alcohol by the time I get back, we can have some fun. For now, though, just rest a bit."

"Yes ma'am," Shion murmured. "G'nigh…."

Giving her lover one last mixed look, Yayoi left the room. She fished her phone out of her black pants pocket. It was nearly two in the morning. Yayoi pulled up the number that Rina had given her, which she said belonged to a safe, unmonitored phone. She sent a short text: "Wolf has completed Stage Two; preparing to rendezvous." (As ordered, Yayoi had used the codename Wolf to refer to herself.)

In a minute, the answer arrived. The text said, "Destroyer and Locksmith have entered the premises. Heading to bottom level to rendezvous." The mission was truly underway, then, thought Yayoi. Destroyer would be Rina, and her companion, charged with breaking down the basement secret entrance, must be Locksmith. Everything now ran on a metaphorical time bomb. Locksmith would have to get Rina inside the Sybil chamber before a human security guard caught them. Locksmith and Yayoi would then cause a distraction to get the attention shifted to them instead of to Rina, who would be inside slaughtering Sybil.

Taking a deep breath, and making sure she had her Dominator and stun baton, Yayoi set off. She walked coolly but quickly to the nearest elevator. She rode it down to the basement. She walked the last part on her own, down to the fourth floor of the basement, to the location of the secret entrance to Sybil's chambers. The metal stairs creaked and wobbled, but Yayoi paid them no mind. As she reached the fourth landing, she saw two cloaked and hooded figures in the dark. The smaller one was equipped with a heavy rifle, obviously one of high caliber. This figure was Rina.

"You made it," she whispered, hugging Yayoi warmly. "This mission might just work now. That's Locksmith—you'll recognize him if you see his face. He's your old friend Kadri. He tried to hack in so we could bypass this door's security measures, but the defense is just too good."

"Is there another way in?" Yayoi asked with calmness that surprised even herself.

"We have one last chance," came the familiar voice of Kadri, speaking in a gruff whisper. "I'm setting it up now. It's a small bomb. It should be powerful enough to blast through this door. You disabled the alarm, right, Kunizuka? Then let's all get back. I'm starting the counter."

Rina, Yayoi, and Kadri hurried to the concrete floor at the bottom of the stairs. Crates full of drone parts and equipment were stacked here and there. The three fugitives took cover behind one.

"The moment the bomb goes off," said Rina, "the Inspectors and Enforcers will know we're here. It's even possible that the police Chief is hiding somewhere in this tower. The second after the explosion, I'm going to run into the room beyond, find Sybil, and wreck the system with this super high caliber rifle. If Yayoi's right and the system is made up of human brains, I'll just shoot each of them and be done with it. In the meantime, you two will run as far away from the basement as you can, and pretend to start a fight. Yayoi, pretend Kadri is the only intruder and you're hounding him. When the other Enforcers come, make sure you tell them that the explosion was on the second floor and not the basement. If this buys me even a little more time, it'll be all I need. One other thing."

"What is it?" Yayoi asked, heart pounding with anticipation for the mission ahead.

Rina threw her thin arms around Yayoi's neck. She pressed her lips against the other woman's, kissing her passionately. She moved her tongue to reach Yayoi's, but the Enforcer drew back. In her blue eyes was a mixture of anger, hurt, and affection.

"Those days are over, Rina," Yayoi said grimly. "I'm helping you with this mission because I hate the Sybil System. It has nothing to do with loving you. As far as I'm concerned, ever since you abandoned me, you have been my enemy."

Forcing a smile on, Rina said, "Come on. It was just one kiss. One for old times' sake. The last one. Alright, everyone. Cover your ears."

In the quiet of the tower at night, the explosion sounded all the more deafening. The light from the combustion forced Kadri and the girls to close their eyes, and afterward a wave of intense, hot wind whipped over them. Some of the stacked crates fell down from the force. Parts of the metal stairs and landing around the secret door had been blown off, and the pieces clattered loudly to the floor. Yayoi noticed she had used her body to shield Rina without even realizing it. Luckily, none of the debris hit her or anyone else. Kadri's cloak was scorched and he had burns on his left arm and leg which had been closest to the explosion. Being a strong and enduring person, however, Kadri resisted the urges to scream in pain. He crawled out from behind the crates, groaning lowly.

"The door's been blown open!" Rina cried, gripping the heavy rifle in her hands. "I'm going in to destroy Sybil. You two, get running, get up those stairs, and good luck! Long live freedom!"

The three criminals rushed up the stairs, jumping over parts that had been damaged in the explosion. Rina veered off to go through the blackened, misshapen doors leading to the chamber where Sybil was stored. Yayoi and Kadri continued running upward, panting, feeling the blood in their veins burn with urgency and a sense of excitement. At last they reached the end of the basement and ran out onto the first above-ground floor of Nona Tower.

They found themselves in the huge, marble-floored lobby area by the main entrance. The two of them had to begin their act now, before either of the Inspectors showed up. There weren't many places to take cover, but Kadri managed to hide most of himself behind a pillar. Then Yayoi drew out her Dominator, and fired a shot that intentionally missed him but left a dent in the pillar. She noticed that Kadri's Crime Coefficient was right at 302. He took out a small handgun and fired it in Yayoi's direction. She zig-zagged to avoid the shots, and took cover behind a pillar on the opposite side of the room.

"Hey, both of you!" a voice called.

It was Enforcer Hinakawa, standing on top of the marble stairs leading down into the lobby area. His red hair was a frazzled mess, and he was dressed in blue-grey pajamas, apparently having been in two much of a hurry to suit up. He held a Dominator at the ready. In the darkened hall behind him, the outlines of several other figures could be seen.

"Surrender right now!" Hinakawa screamed. "We know you're really working together! We don't want to hurt either of you if we can avoid it. Drop your weapons! This is your last cha—"

All in the blink of an eye, Kadri ran out from behind his pillar, took aim, and shot the young Enforcer. The bullet was meant for his head, but it found its mark on the right side of the collarbone, just inches from his throat. Hinakawa fell with a strangled cry, his pale pajamas quickly flooding with the deep red of blood. There were several gasps and one angry shout from behind Hinakawa.

As Kadri darted back toward the pillar for cover, Enforcer Ginoza appeared at the top of the stairs. Behind him, Akane, Shimotsuki, the new Division Two Inspector Itami, and two of his Enforcers were preparing to come out of hiding. Yayoi hesitated, unsure if she should keep up the act of fighting Kadri, and feeling reluctant to use her Dominator on any of her partners. In that second of hesitation, before Kadri could reach the pillar for cover, Ginoza shot him. Yayoi watched as the blue-green blast crashed into Kadri's back, made him suffer for a long fraction of a second, and then exploding his body from the inside out. The body bloated horrifically and then burst, splattering blood, muscle, and tissue everywhere. Kadri, Yayaoi's close friend from high school, was dead.

Yayoi managed to duck behind her pillar, narrowly avoiding a shot from Inspector Shimotsuki. (She wondered darkly if had been intended to wound or to kill). Then the party of six enemies charged down the stairs. Shimotsuki and Akane led the way, covered by fire from Ginoza and the other two Enforcers. Inspector Itami, a well-built man in his early fifties, took up the rear. As the group drew closer, Yayoi realized there was nothing she could do. When she was this overwhelmed, she knew couldn't manage to get in a shot at one of the Inspectors. She couldn't run away anywhere, except back toward the basement, but she didn't want to draw attention there and disrupt Rina's critical mission.

"That explosion!" shouted Yayoi in a last desperate attempt. "It came from the second floor! We should all go there right away!"

Inspector Shimotsuki leaped down the last four or five stairs, charged over to Yayoi, and rammed her in the gut with her Dominator. Yayoi fell to the marble floor, gasping, and feeling surprised that a girl much shorter than her had managed to knock her clean over.

"Mika, hold her down," ordered Akane, rushing by and heading toward the basement. "We'll all go on ahead. See if she'll talk. We don't know how many enemies there are waiting for us, or what they might have already done to the Sybil System. Come on, Ginoza! Kahae, Okui, and Inspector Itami, follow behind and cover us! To the basement!"

Lying on her back, Yayoi wondered angrily why things had gone wrong. How had the Inspectors had seen through her act? How could Ginoza so carelessly shoot down Kadri? How did Akane know that the basement was under attack? Yayoi thought about springing up, running after them, and shooting them from behind, but her Dominator had fallen on the floor just out of her reach. Before she could drag her body closer to her weapon, Shimotsuki punched her square in the face. She held Yayoi's body down with her own, pinning her wrists to the cold floor.

"So you've really gone full traitor," Mika said with a livid expression marring her usually endearing features. "I didn't want to believe you were just another latent criminal piece of scum, but the proof is staring me in the face." She held the tip of the dominator just inches from Yayoi's head. "If I shoot, it may or not kill you. Your Coefficient is fluctuating quickly and wildly from 285 to 301. But I can't shoot you, no matter how much I want to. I need you to be able to talk. Tell me right now! How many enemies are trying to destroy Sybil? What are we up against? Talk now and it might save you from execution later."

Yayoi managed to wrest one of her wrists free. She then sat up enough to knock Shimotsuki's face with her own head. While Mika reeled back in pain, Yayoi slid her free hand to her backside where she had hidden her stun baton. She clicked it on in an instant and whacked the side of Shimotsuki's neck. The Enforcer screamed and then tumbled into a limp pile, unconscious.

Hurriedly, Yayoi grabbed her Dominator and got to her feet. She rushed after the Inspectors and Enforcers. In a moment, she saw that she was coming up on Ginoza, who had apparently lingered a little behind the others. They spotted each other at the same time and raised their Dominators, but Ginoza's shot missed by several inches, perhaps on purpose.

"Kunizuka," he shouted sternly, "I don't want to have to kill my own comrade! Please trust in Inspector Akane and surrender. Itami and his two Enforcers aren't like me. They won't hesitate to kill you. Please give—"

Ginozo reeled backward and fell down several steps before he stopped moving. Yayoi had fired at him. She had made sure, of course, that his Crime Coefficient was only 140, so he would only be temporarily paralyzed. Refusing to look at him, Yayoi stepped over Ginoza's fallen body and hurried on down the stairs. She was rapidly approaching the fourth landing. She could hear gunshots from Rina's high caliber rifle, and wondered if Rina could even handle the gun to shoot the brains, let alone defend herself from enemies with versatile Dominators.

Yayoi saw Akane, Itami, and one of the Enforcers go through the misshapen door towards Rina. One Enforcer stayed behind. This short-haired Japanese woman, Kahae, heard the sound of Yayaoi's feet coming down the metal stairs. She quickly aimed and fired. Yayoi rolled down the stairs—it hurt like hell, but saved her from a lethal Dominator shot.

She sprang up and kicked the Dominator out of Kahae's hand, and it clattered to the concrete floor ten feet below the landing. At the same time, the quick-witted Kahae whipped out a black, double-edged boot knife and thrust it at Yayoi. The long-haired woman had quick reflexes so that she backed up as the knife came on. It jabbed her chest, but got less than a full inch of depth, only "poking" her. Yayoi ignored the pain and concentrated all her being on anticipating and dodging the next few lightning-fast strokes of the knife. One of Kahae's slashes tore open a rift across her opponent's left cheek before Yayoi managed to get far enough away to aim her Dominator. The woman with short hair had a Crime Coefficient of 164, and she fell down paralyzed.

Now there was only one thing to do, only one hope of destroying Sybil. Yayoi would have to get into the next room and back up Rina. That is, if she wasn't already dead by now from the forces of Akane, Itami, and Okui. Instead of charging blindly in, Yayoi cautiously looked through the broken, dented double doors before proceeding.

A short, white-walled entry hall lay ahead of her. Beyond that was an opening to the chamber where the brains of Sybil were stored in thick glass, connected to a life support system in the spongy yellow floor. The perimeter of the chamber was secured with pale grey flooring and several shining, podium-like structures made for the Chief and a select few others to stand and speak to the living system. Now, those podiums were being used as cover from gunfire. Rina was crouched behind the one on the very far end of the room, shakily trying to reload her rifle. Itami, Okui, and Akane were breaking out of their cover and zig-zagging straight toward Rina. The situation did not look favorable. The only upside was that several—at least five—of Sybil's brains that already been shot and destroyed.

"Rina, cover me!" shouted Yayoi, charging in.

As Yayoi charged from behind them and Rina prepared to shoot from in front of them, Akane and Division Two were momentarily baffled in confusion. Okui, a male Enforcer with long, brown hair, fired his Dominator at Yayoi, but missed. Yayoi kept running toward Rina. Akane told Itami to shoot Rina while she took care of Yayoi, but at that moment, Rina had finished reloading her rifle. She shot Division Two Inspector Itami and he crashed several feet backward from the force of it. Akane was too shocked to move for a second, and Okui was trying to stabilize his Dominator. In those brief few seconds, Yayoi ran the rest of the way to Rina, and joined her behind the stone podium.

Rina was panting, her hood was down, and her face was red and sweaty. Strands of black and blue hair fell over her girlish face. Yayoi was moved by the young woman's strength and bravery, and quickly clapped her on the back.

"You," said Yayoi, "aim at the brains. Take out as many as you can. I'll cover you and fire at Akane and that other Enforcer. Neither of us has a clear shot at the other from this angle, but I'll do my best."

Biting back tears of terror, Rina nodded. She lifted the heavy rifle and fired a deafening shot, shattering another one of Sybil's brains. Okui and Akane broke cover just long enough to try to fire. Yayoi ducked behind the podium to avoid them and then exposed herself, shooting back at them.

"Stop!" Akane screamed in a strong but somewhat shrill voice. "Yayoi, what the hell is wrong with you? Do you really want to destroy Japan?! Stop right now and talk to me, and we may be able to talk both of you down to a number where I can just paralyze you! If you keep trying to fight, I'll have no choice but to kill you!"

"Talk us down to a number where you can stun us?" scoffed Yayoi loudly. "Pathetic! We're evenly matched now, two against two. I'm not giving up." (She broke cover again and fired several shots in rapid succession, forcing Akane to hide.) "With this system in place, more people may live, and they may live longer lives, but they are miserable lives! Sybil takes away human dignity!" (Yayoi dodged a shot from Okui, and then fired her own, while Rina destroyed a seventh brain.) "This system… the Sybil System… makes people into mere numbers! Inspector Akane, I refuse to live any longer as a number! I am a person! My name is—"

"Yayoi!" screamed a familiar voice.

Yayoi couldn't believe it at first. Shion was running toward her. She didn't seem drunk at all, and she was wearing a polo and skirt with a lab coat. She didn't have a Dominator, or any other weapon, for that matter. She must have been faking being drunk, finding evidence of Yayoi's plan and alerting Akane. Her golden-blond hair flew out behind her as she ran. Shion was rapidly crossing the distance between Akane's podium and the podium behind which Rina and Yayoi hid.

Suddenly, it seemed as if everything was happening in slow motion. Okui had his Dominator brandished but was not firing, thanks to Akane laying a hand on him to stop him. Akane herself looked shocked as she watched Shion enter the danger zone. Shion seemed to be taking forever to get anywhere. Yayoi just stared, frozen and dissociated. Beside her, Rina was raising up her rifle. She aimed, preparing to shoot. Was she going for one of Sybil's brains? No… it was clear she was aiming… right at Shion. If somebody didn't do something, Shion was going to be shot right in the head or the heart. It would be an easy shot at this range. Yayoi felt sick enough to vomit, and yet she couldn't move. Her body would not obey her mind. She could not even speak.

"Yayoi!" Shion was shouting. "You're not a number to me! You've always been a person! I don't care if your Psycho Pass is white or black. I don't care if your Crime Coefficient is 4 or 400! Yayoi Kunizuka, I love you!"

Finally, the spell of dissociation broke. Yayoi felt her body grow warm as if lighted with fire. She took her Dominator and whacked Rina on the head with it, just as the anarchist fired at Shion. The blow to the girl's head made her shot go wide, and the bullet crashed into a wall. Rina flopped to the floor, unconscious, and Akane still looked too shocked to move. Shion was safe and sound. She ran until she stood just inches from where Yayoi crouched. Then she sank to her knees and threw her arms around her lover, burying her face in Yayoi's long, black hair.

"Yayoi Kunizuka," Shion kept repeating, sounding almost tearful. "Yayoi Kunizuka. _Aisteru, atashi no taitsetsu Kunizuka Yayoi_!"


	10. Epilogue: Narcissus and Forget Me Not

10: Epilogue: Narcissus and Forget Me Not

Enforcer Okui of Division Two walked over to the place where Shion and Yayoi were embracing. Although he did not know Yayoi, he was still surprised to see such a stern-looking girl shedding tears. She did not sob, and she did not speak; she just put her arms around Shion and let a few tears trickle down from her cerulean eyes. The two lovers were so focused on each other that they didn't see what Okui was doing. He pointed his Dominator at the unconscious Rina. It read 325. Then the Enforcer fired.

Yayoi screamed in anguish and Shion screamed in surprise as Rina's beautiful body bloated and burst. Blood fell down in rain-like showers, soaking Shion and the Enforcers. Yayoi turn around and started vomiting. The death of her childhood friend was too sudden and to grotesque for her to process. She said nothing of her outrage, because she knew the Inspectors would never have been allowed to keep Rina alive, but she suffered all the same. She felt like all the deepest contents of her guts were coming up as she retched. Shion knelt beside her and shielded her with her body.

"Please get back, Analyst Karanomori," Okui said to Shion. "You're wasting valuable time. My supervisor, Inspector Itami, was shot by Rina's colossal rifle. He will bleed to death if you don't go try to save him. Division One's Sho Hinakawa also suffered a wound from a handgun, and I'm not sure if any arteries were hit. You used to be a doctor, right? Well, get to work."

"If I move," snapped Shion, "you're going to shoot my Yayoi, no? I'm not budging."

"I'm only doing my job," replied the long-haired Enforcer. "These Dominators are for subduing criminals. We have Sybil's authority to shoot criminals without a trial. But if you're worried about me killing her…" Okui pointed his Dominator at Yayoi's head long enough to read her Crime Coefficient. "Tsk. This girl is some kind of freak of nature. Her Coefficient's gone back down 265 already. I hate having to trust people with unstable numbers. Nevertheless, I can't legally kill her. So move aside, Shion. I'm just going to temporarily paralyze her."

Inspector Akane joined Shion and company. Her hands were stained with blood and her jacket was torn where she had ripped part of it off to make a bandage for Inspector Itami.

"I've got the bleeding under control," Akane reported. "And I've called ambulances as well as Chief Kasei. I'm afraid the drones won't be of any help, but we can manage on our own. Shion, please do step back. Proper procedures dictate that we must immobilize Yayoi."

Feeling stronger, Yayoi stood up out of Shion's embrace. "I knew what I was getting into," she stated grimly. "You can shoot me, either of you. I know it will just be temporary paralysis now, but I'm sure the Chief is going to want me executed as soon as possible. I'm prepared for that. I only ask that you do not trouble Shion. Don't think that she had any part in my treachery."

"Yayoi!" Shion whispered urgently. "You can't just let yourself be killed!"

"Calm down, everyone," Inspector Akane cut in. She gave Yayoi a long, serious look, and quickly winked at her. "It will be ok, Yayoi-san. We know you were being a double agent, just as you planned all along, right? By yourself, you managed to isolate the biggest threat to the Sybil System—the terrorist Rina Takizaki—and you managed to bring her into custody. It was you, right? You knocked her out just now. All this time, you were only pretending to go along with her plans so that you could double cross her and turn her in. The Chief won't kill such a brave double agent."

The tall, wiry Okui glared at the petite Akane. "Are you being serious?" he demanded. "I'm supposed to believe that Yayoi Kunizuka is on our side? If it weren't for her participation in Rina's plan, Sybil would never have been in danger. Even if playing along with Rina was part of the trick, the act should have stopped before Rina destroyed so many brains. The fact that Yayoi let Rina damage Sybil so badly proves that she's on the anarchist's side! Am I wrong?"

"Enforcer Okui," said Shion, standing up to face him and putting a hand on her hip, "Yayoi took a dangerous gamble. Sybil was damaged, yes, but it survived. What if the terrorist Rina had tried this operation without Yayoi? Maybe she would have succeeded. But since Yayoi was here, we were all able to stop her. I have other proof of Yayoi's innocence, too. While it's true that Yayoi was the one who disabled the alarms and the drones, she did so using MY tablet, and she left obvious traces of what she had done in plain sight. That was how she alerted me to the danger. Then I told Inspector Akane what was going on."

"That's right," Akane confirmed.

Yayoi looked from Akane to Shion and back again. She could barely believe her ears. These two were actually sticking up for her. They didn't want her to die. In reality, Yayoi truly had been working with Rina to try to destroy the Sybil System. But as things turned out, Yayoi looked as if she had been playing the role of a double agent. She had thought Shion was drunk, and never dreamed that the woman might figure out Rina's plan by looking at the tablet she left open. Yayoi had also been the one to knock Rina out, though she had only done so to save Shion. Was it right to play along, pretending to be loyal to Akane and to the Sybil System? Well, if she denied it, she would surely face death. Although she thought it seemed selfish, Yayoi wanted to live. She wanted to be together with Shion. Even if they would have to live under the Sybil System, at least they could live. There was no need to hesitate.

"It was never my intention to harm Sybil," Yayoi lied, looking Okui in the eye unblinkingly. "I was already chasing Shinozuka Kadri when I noticed that Rina had disappeared and set off the bomb. I was fighting too intensely with Kadri to try to stop Rina from destroying the brains. Inspector Shimotsuki and Enforcers Ginoza and Kahae did not realize I was a double agent. They tried to attack me. I was forced to put the three of them into an unconscious state so I could hurry onward to try to stop Rina. I promise no serious harm was done to Shimotsuki, Kahae, or Ginoza."

"Fine then," Okui said with several violent swears mixed in. "You play the part of the traitor exceptionally well. All the same, I'll have to paralyze you. On the off chance that you're really a terrorist, we can't have you running away. We'll stun you and keep you in the medical ward on the sixth floor where Chief Kasei can interrogate you later."

Shion looked like she was going to protest, but Yayoi quietly placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright," she smiled. "I feel strange and kind of guilty for being alive right now. I think someone like me ought to at least get shot. Besides, I'm tired. Unconsciousness sounds great now."

"If you insist." Shion kissed Yayoi's forehead fervently. "I'll make sure nobody hurts you."

Shion stood back. Yayoi let Okui aim at her without any complaint. She briefly looked and saw Akane smiling at her, relief and respect reflected in her large sepia eyes. Next, Yayoi looked at Shion and saw that a warm, tender smile had crossed the woman's ruby lips. In spite of the situation she was in, and in spite of the unsympathetic manner in which she usually carried herself, Yayoi smiled back at them. Her azure eyes still glistened a bit from where she had shed tears earlier. Then Okui pulled the trigger, and the bright cyan-white blast of the Dominator struck Yayoi's left leg. She collapsed without a cry, and the expression on her face was one of restful sleep.

****Line Break****

It took some time for Chief Kasei to believe that Yayoi should be kept alive. Akane argued for Yayoi's sake over the course of many hard nights. Shion pled for Yayoi's innocence too, and even Ginoza pitched in. At last, Kasei decided that Yayoi would live and continue to work as an Enforcer. She admitted that if Yayoi had not stopped Rina and knocked her out, the entire System would have been obliterated. As things stood, however, the System was heavily damaged, and could not keep running at its former far-fetching strength, accuracy, and speed. Something had to be done to augment Sybil until such a time as it could again handle the running of the country.

The most obvious option was to use supercomputers to enhance Sybil's processing capabilities. Only a few with the required strength could be made available, however, and these would significantly affect the budget of the entire Public Safety Bureau. Akane was the first to suggest another solution. To ease the burden on the System, Sybil would give up control of its general law-making duties, passing that responsibility on to a diet of democratically elected lawyers, judges, and politicians. The change would be huge. I had been about thirty years since any control of law and order was handed to an elected body. All the same, Kasei thought the plan was the most reasonable course of action to keep the country safe. When Sybil no longer needed help from the diet, the members of the legislature would vote to decide whether or not to surrender their control back to the System. The Public Safety Bureau made the announcement to all of Japan, and almost at once, potential legislators from all walks of life stepped forward to represent the people.

"Sybil really does evolve for the good of the people," Akane observed, touched. She was standing in Kasei's office, hands behind her back, with a smile on her small, elfish face. "If I may speak farther, Chief, there are a couple other changes I want the Sybil System to consider. They need to stop intruding quite so far into freedom of expression. I don't think it will be a huge deal to overturn some of the restricting laws on music and literature. Also, Sybil needs to start re-evaluating the treatment of Latent Criminals. Many of them are so miserable in the holding facilities that they would rather die. If an uprising ever happened, they might have the power to kill us all, and they would be justified—unless we start treating them as human beings."

"If I'm not mistaken," Kasei said in her cracked voice, "one of the highest areas of aptitude in your career placement test was 'Lawyer.' You're a police Inspector first, but a sound and fair judge second. For that reason, I want to appoint you to a special job." Kasei adjusted her rectangular glasses and pushed a strange of grey hair back from her wrinkled face. "Akane Tsunemori, you will act as the interface between the new Legislative Assembly and the Public Safety Bureau. You will suggest changes in the system to both sides, and you will be expected to argue your opinions with sound logic. With this position, you can have a voice in fighting for the rights of Latent Criminals and freedom on expression. In addition, you come directly to me to argue for changes in the treatment of Inspectors and Enforcers."

Akane bowed respectfully. "I am grateful, Kasei-Bucho. I will officially accept this role as long as the new Legislative Assembly approves of me. While we're on the subject, there is one small change I want to make as soon as possible concerning the treatment of Enforcers. I believe Enforcers should be allowed to legally marry. I ask that you put this law into effect immediately, since it's you and the not the Assembly that decide matters of Enforcer rights."

Kasei was not thrilled at the idea of letting Enforcers marry. However, after debating it for a while and consulting Inspectors from multiple Divisions, she gave in. Akane had to restrain herself from literally leaping for joy. She couldn't believe how much progress she had already made. She hurried off to tell Shion and Yayoi the wonderful news.

(Incidentally, Yayoi had been faring quite well. She recovered from the paralysis in three days and had no lasting nerve damage. She had a new scar across her cheek from where Kahea had cut her, but she thought it made her look tough, so she didn't mind it. She also didn't mind the fact that she and Rina had failed to destroy Sybil. Shion proved that she loved Yayoi as a person, regardless of numbers, and that was good enough for Yayoi. She did, however, grieve for Rina.

She tried to patch things up with Shimotsuki too. Yayoi swore she would never tell a soul about Mika's involvement in the murder, and that she had never intended to tell in the first place. She simply had to drastic measures to get Shimotsuki to cooperate. Hearing all this, Mika began to slowly forgive the Enforcer.

Attending multiple sessions of daily therapy, Yayoi saw her Crime Coefficient dropping steadily. Now that she had given up trying to destroy Sybil, the System no longer considered her enough of a threat to be killed. By the time Yayoi spoke to Shion and accepted the silver-and-turquoise necklace, her Crime Coefficient had stabilized at 127.)

****Line Break****

Yayoi and Shion had a difficult time deciding what to do for their wedding. Neither of them thought their families would be interested, and they each had only a small handful of friends. (Shion had held on to a few friends from her days at med school, and Yayoi had Shimotsuki, Hinazawa, Ginoza, and Akane.) Yayoi suggested they change their papers to indicate marriage without a ceremony, same-sex marriage being legal in Japan by this point; Shion, however, wanted to make a little show of the affair. She did some research and decided to use a Shinto Wedding theme.

"Nobody's been Shinto for, like, sixty years," Yayoi told Shion flatly. "Where would we find a Shinto priest or a shrine maiden? Would they even perform a ceremony when you and I aren't religious? The same goes with western ceremonies. Why do it in a church when we're atheists?"

"The few remaining Shinto priests would perform the ceremony because they're just happy to keep the tradition alive," Shion replied. "I don't think it's a big deal if we're not Shinto. Besides, the meaning of the rituals is often up to interpretation. It's not spelled out for you like in a chapel wedding. It's true that there aren't many priests left—less than ten thousand in the country, I read. But we're in luck. My classmate from med school has an uncle on northern outskirts of Tokyo who's a bona fide Kami no Michi Priest. His family is still Shinto. Let's ask him if he'll do it. Come on."

"Fine," Yayoi agreed, pretending to be annoyed, but actually pleased that Shion was enjoying herself. "We'll use our necklaces instead of rings, though. And I'm not wearing one of those paper hats or wigs."

After much debate and planning, the day of the wedding finally arrived. It was a cool day in the autumn of 2116. The ceremony was held outdoors at the small shrine where Shion's old friend, the Priest Umeki-Soryo, lived with his family. His granddaughter daughter of twelve years agreed to play the part of the Miko, or Shrine Maiden, using a costume that had been passed down in their family for generations. On padded grey chairs, the guests sat facing the outdoor shrine altar. Kasei, Shimotsuki, Akane, and the Enforcers of Division One were present, along with five of Shion's friends and the one sister with whom she was still in touch. To Yayoi's unending surprise, her father Morihiro attended the wedding, too. He said nothing and he didn't look too happy, but all the same, he came. Yayoi remembered for the first time in years that she actually still loved her father.

Umeki-Soryo appeared in pale grey robes and black hat, taking his place to the right of the altar. To the left of the altar stood the Miko in a white kimono and burgundy hakama. She waved her antique gohei over the offerings and blessed them. Then Shion and Yayoi walked gracefully over and stood in between the Miko and the priest.

Shion wore a scarlet kimono with a white, satin kakeshita embroidered with flowers. Her yellow hair was tied up into a ceremonial bun showing through the small white tsuno-kakushina hat. Yayoi wore a tight-fitted black kimono of silk with a white undershirt and divided gray hakama trousers. Both women looked beautiful as well as dashing. They held hands, listened, and watched while the priest completed the ceremony to purify the shrine, ensuring the sanctification of the wedding. The priest invoked the names of many gods and spirits, asking them to bless and honor the shrine and the unity of the new couple.

Next came the sake-sipping ceremony of nan-nan-san-kudo. Shion and Yayoi passed the correct cups back and forth in the correct order, each partaking of the shining silver sake. Thereafter, the time came to read vows. In a Shinto wedding, the groom would read his vows and the bride would listen. Since this wedding had two brides, they both decided to read their vows to each other.

Shion spoke first. "I make this wedding vow respectfully before the Umeki Family Shrine. We, Shion Karanomori and Yayoi Kunizuka, are delighted to make our vows on this pleasing day. I swear before the Shrine and my family and friends to love and respect my wife for all time. I swear to strive to bring prosperity and harmony to our union and our future family. Moreover, I swear to never veer from the path of marital faithfulness, and to share grace and kindness with all people. Yayoi, I cannot begin to tell you how deeply I love you. Please take as a token of my love these flowers of Forget Me Not. They symbolize the desire to be remembered, love, and good memories. I will never forget who you are, Yayoi, nor how deeply you can love. Let's create many good memories together."

Yayoi went next. "I make this wedding vow respectfully before the Umeki Family Shrine. We, Shion Karanomori and Yayoi Kunizuka, are delighted to make our vows on this pleasing day. This woman, I marry. No matter our health, I will love this person, respect this person, console this person, and aid this person until death, protecting our fidelity. I so swear before the Shrine and my family and friends. Shion, you are my savior and my reason for living. As a sign of my love, please accept these purple blossoms of Narcissus, which symbolize belief in oneself, talent, and a direct, charismatic personality. Your confidence is amazing to watch and it helps me begin to build some self-assurance. Your talents are numerous: being a doctor, a communications analyst, a technological whizz, and a refined woman. Your charisma was the reason I first fell in love you. Let us continue the steps of this dance together, for as long as we live."

The audience was touched by the heartfelt vows. There was a silence for a few minutes before the Miko approached the guests. She began passing out small sake cups as well as the bottle of silver sake. When everyone had filled their small cups, they drank in unison with a cry of "Kampai!"

Everyone was bidden to place their offerings of food and drink on the altar. Umeki-Soyro offered the traditional small evergreen bush to show thankfulness to the spirits. Shion and Yayoi placed two bags of high-quality brown rice on the altar. Then the guests came forward with their contributions. Most of the gifts were small affairs, but Akane brought a bottle of Dai Ginjo sake, and Kasei offered a basket of ume, shikwasa, and kinkan fruits. Above the offerings, the couple's twin wedding necklaces were on display.

The priest Umeki took hold of the necklaces. He handed the turquoise one to Shion and the Ruby one to Yayoi. As Yayoi bowed her head slightly, she felt Shion placing the blue-and-silver jewelry around her neck. Then Shion bowed her head, and Yayoi, feeling joyful and nervous all at once, set the ruby necklace on her bride. Then they both stood up straight while Umeki-Soryo said the closing weddings prayers. The shrine maiden waved her gohei over Shion and Yayoi, and the two of them shared a passionate kiss.

"Well, Yayoi," said Shion a bit later, wrapping her arms around her wife and feeling her hips. "Do you think we can do it? Can a couple of stubborn bitches like us make a good wedded pair?"

"I think we're both so stubborn that we can do anything we set our minds to," answered Yayoi, stroking Shion's golden hair. "In some ways, this kind of feels like an ending in my life. An ending to living as a number, believing that I could never be happy. But more than that, it's the beginning. It's the start of my life with you, Shion."

The blond woman kissed her dark-haired lover. "Yayoi, I hope you're not always going to be that sappy now that we're married. Save the sappy for when I'm depressed. As for right now… hmm… let's go have a couple of cigarettes."

Yayoi laughed. "Alright then. You never change, Shion."

The End


End file.
